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GIFT   OF 


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Consisting  of 

CENTRE      ^        BLAIR 
CLEARFIELD       HUNTINGDON 
BEDFORD  JUNIATA 

and 

MIFFLIN  COUNTIES,  PENNSYLVANIA 


3  3  i  , , 


MADE  BY  THE 

DEPARTMENT  OF  IMMIGRATION  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  HOME 

MISSIONS  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH   IN  THE  U.S.A. 

'I 

Rev.  Charles  Stelzle,  Superintendent 
G.  B.  St.  John,  Investigator 

UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  HUNTINGDON  PRESBYTERY 

19  10 


^^'^^3\'C' 


\ 


404086 


■  "If    ^^^ 


.^^Ah^^    -  ^    0  I  >'-~-^^l4^^>m 


State  of  Pennsylvania,  Showing  Huntingdon  Presbytery  Outlined  in  Red. 


,'  '  '         1        ,  ,    >  ,  > 

>    i         O  3     1 

'5      >        1  1  >  >    >   > 


^uru^g  0f  ||mttttigb0n  pr^Hhgterg 


PURPOSE  OF  THE  SURVEY 

Among  the  several  problems  confronting  the  Huntingdon  Pres- 
bytery is  that  of  the  foreign  population  within  its  bounds. 

The  Presbytery  felt  that  a  special  investigation  of  the  entire  area 
should  be  made,  and  an  invitation  was  extended  to  the  Department 
of  Immigration  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  to  conduct  a  careful 
and  scientific  survey  of  the  field. 

The  territory  ofifers  an  opportunity  for  a  number  of  special  investi- 
gations. The  growth  and  decline  of  many  country  churches;  the 
influence  of  the  movement  cityward ;  the  buying  up  of  farms  from  the 
native  born  American  by  either  foreign  born  or  those  born  of  foreign 
parents  and  its  great  influence  on  the  country  church;  the  replacing 
in  the  soft  coal  mines  of  the  American  and  Irish  miner  of  twenty  or 
thirty  years  ago,  by  the  Slav  and  the  Italian,  and  its  influence  on  the 
social  and  economic  life  of  the  Presbytery  as  a  whole,  all  would  have 
furnished  excellent  material  for  exhaustive  studies,  and  even  in  a 
specific  study  of  the  foreign  problem,  these  factors  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of,  as  they  have  a  direct  bearing  upon  this  question.  Interest- 
ing studies  might  be  made  of  counties  separately,  ascertaining  the 
causes  of  the  decrease  of  population  in  certain  counties  within  the 
past  ten  years  and  the  growth  in  others. 

Many  extensive  studies  might  be  also  made  of  this  section  of 
Pennsylvania  regarding  such  subjects  as  are  being  discussed  by  the 
Federation  of  Churches  of  Mifflin  County, — as,  for  instance.  Child 
Labor ;  Women  in  Industry ;  the  Temperance  Alovement ;  Sabbath 
Observance;  Recreation  and  Amusements,  but  it  is  with  the  foreign 
population  within  the  bounds  of  this  Presbytery,  their  social  and 
religious  life,  their  economic  conditions  and  standards  of  living,  their 
attitude  toward  America  and  things  American,  and  the  attitude  in 
turn  of  the  Americans  toward  them  that  this  special  investigation  has 
directly  to  deal. 

3 


•  •  •  .•  I 


SOURCfi^g  »F'  INFORMATION 

ft  *^   c  t 

It  was 'p.v-siol^  to^fiiM^ip.  ^He'.G^risus  reports  of  1900,  the  foreign 
population  of  the  different  counties,  the  percentage  of  foreign  born 
and  those  born  of  foreign  parents,  but  nowhere  could  information  be 
found  concerning  the  religious  and  social  life  of  the  foreigner,  or 
facts  regarding  the  percentage  of  those  using  such  social  agencies  as 
we  have  been  studying, — the  Church,  the  school,  the  theatre,  the 
saloon,  the  Labor  Union,  the  library,  the  club,  the  Lodge,  the  pool- 
room and  the  dance  hall. 

Facts  concerning  schools  in  this  section  of  the  country  have  been 
gathered,  their  admission  requirements,  their  attendances,  their  night 
schools,  their  trade  schools  for  Americans  and  foreigners.  We  have 
gathered  reports  on  vital  statistics,  on  factory  inspection,  on  private 
and  public  charities,  and  we  have  investigated  the  influence  of  social 
forces  upon  the  foreigners  in  the  Presbytery. 

As  a  result  of  this  study,  the  Home  Missions  Committee  will  have 
on  file  information  regarding  Huntingdon  Presbytery  that  will  be 
available  to  all  the  ministers  in  the  Presbytery;  information  that  can 
be  used  in  church  work,  in  Sunday  School  work  and  in  all  social 
work  of  the  church  in  connection  with  the  foreign  population  of  the 
Presbytery.  Files  have  been  arranged  where  all  records  and  reports 
of  location  of  foreigners,  work  done  for  and  by  foreigners  in  the 
Presbytery,  may  be  kept,  and  these  are  so  tabulated  that  they  may 
be  kept  up  to  date,  both  by  questionnaire  sent  to  the  different  churches 
and  ministers  from  time  to  time  and  by  reports  sent  to  this  central 
information  bureau  by  those  in  any  way  connected  with  the  work 
among  foreigners  in  the  Presbytery. 

Every  available  agency  was  interviewed  in  the  gathering  together 
of  facts  in  this  investigation, — Government  reports,  city  officials, 
newspapers.  Churches,  schools,  courts,  Labor  Unions,  Government 
officials,  Boards  of  Health,  Salvation  Army,  charities,  both  public 
and  private.  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  manufacturers, 
mining  companies,  including  superintendents,  bosses,  and  coal  dig- 
gers, farmers  and  towns  people  in  general. 


THE  FIELD 

Huntingdon  Presbytery  is  composed  of  7  counties,  viz :  Clearfield 
(excluding  the  northwest  corner),  Centre,  Blair,  Huntingdon,  Mifflin, 


Juniata  and  Bedford,  covering  an  area  of  3,553,920  acres,  or  5,553 
square  miles,  about  one-eighth  of  the  entire  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

Square   Miles  Acres 

Bedford   1,003  641,920 

Blair    510  326,400 

Centre    1,127  785,280 

Clearfield  1,130  723,200 

Huntingdon    899  575,360 

Juniata    407  260,480 

MifBin    Z77  241,280 

The  surface  of  this  section  of  Pennsylvania  is  exceedingly  varied, 
embracing  much  of  the  rugged  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well 
as  some  of  the  finest  and  most  fertile  valleys  in  the  entire  state. 

The  country  is  rich  in  bituminous  coal  and  the  quarry  produc- 
tions rank  very  high.  In  the  coal  mines  and  the  quarries,  the  brick 
yards  and  the  furnaces,  most  of  the  foreigners  are  to  be  found. 

The  rich  farming  lands  along  the  rivers  and  in  the  big  valleys  are 
occupied  either  by  native  born  Americans  or  by  an  older  German 
immigration.  The  organization  of  newer  German  Lutheran  Churches 
in  the  rural  communities,  and  the  steady  maintenance  of  the  older 
German  churches,  the  closing  up  altogether,  or  the  gradual  diminu- 
tion of  Presbyterian  churches,  go  to  prove  that  the  farms  once  held 
by  American  Presbyterians  are  passing  into  the  hands  of  a  German 
population  which  is  apt  to  remain  permanently  rural. 

BEDFORD  COUNTY 

The  southernmost  county  in  the  Presbytery  is  broken  by  numerous 
ranges  of  mountains  which  form  part  of  the  Appalachian  system. 
The  soil  is  fertile  in  the  valleys  and  the  county  is  largely  an  agri- 
cultural one.  Bedford  County,  however,  has  a  considerable  amount 
of  mineral  in  the  northern  part  about  the  Broad  Top  Region,  as  it  is 
called,  including  Six  Mile  Run,  Kearney  and  other  places,  where 
coal  was  mined  as  far  back  as  1760. 

BLAIR  COUNTY 

While  one  of  the  smaller  counties,  Blair  has  the  greatest  density 
of  population  and  contains  the  largest  city  in  the  Presbytery,  Altoona. 
Here  are  located  the  car  shops  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  employ- 
ing, when  running  full,  about  15,000.  Here  also  are  to  be  found  the 
largest  number  of  foreigners  in  the  smallest  area.  Along  the  Eastern 
section  of  the  county,  in   the  vicinity  of  Williamsburg,  are  to  be 

5 


found  large  stone  quarries.  Further  north,  along  the  same  line  in 
the  vicinity  of  Union  Furnace  and  Tyrone  Forges,  are  also  extensive 
quarries.  Many  of  the  brick  works,  employing  as  they  did  Italians 
and  Slavs,  have  shut  down  in  different  parts  of  the  county  and  the 
foreigners  have  gone  elsewhere.  This  is  the  greatest  industrial 
county  of  the  Presbytery  and  here  we  find  the  greatest  numbers  of 
people  who  are  dependent  upon  economic  conditions. 

CENTRE  COUNTY 

Centre  County  is  the  largest  county  in  the  Presbytery  and  is  largely 
an  agricultural  section.  Situated  in  fertile  valleys,  its  farm  products 
are  large.  Lime  and  stone  are  quarried  in  the  vicinity  of  Bellefonte 
and  at  the  extreme  western  part  of  the  county  in  the  vicinity  of 
Winburne,  Munson,  Peale  and  Clarence  are  to  be  found  extensive 
soft  coal  mines. 

CLEARFIELD  COUNTY 

Next  in  area  to  that  of  Centre  County,  Clearfield  has  a  mixed 
output  of  natural  products, — soft  coal  and  farm  produce.  Situated 
in  the  mountainous  region  of  the  State,  the  hills  at  the  eastern  sec- 
tion of  the  county,  joining  the  western  section  of  Centre  County, 
yield  a  large  output  of  bituminous  coal  and  it  is  in  these  regions 
that  we  find  large  groups  of  foreigners.  In  the  extreme  north- 
western section,  in  the  vicinity  of  Du  Bois,  the  largest  number  of 
foreigners  in  the  county  are  living,  but  as  this  is  without  the  bounds 
of  the  Presbytery,  our  investigation  does  not  include  them  nor  does 
it  discuss  their  influence  on  the  rest  of  the  county. 

Coal  is  mined  in  considerable  quantities  in  the  vicinity  of  Ramey, 
Madera,  Smoke  Run,  Blain  City,  Coalport,  Osceola  and  Sandy  Ridge. 
In  the  vicinity  of  Curwensville,  brick  yards  and  tanneries  furnish 
occupation  to  a  number  of  men,  both  native  and  foreign. 

HUNTINGDON  COUNTY 

Huntingdon  County  occupies  the  centre  of  the  Presbytery  and  fur- 
nishes as  products  both  coal  and  farm  produce.  The  Juniata  River 
runs  through  the  centre  of  the  county  and  some  excellent  farming 
country  is  to  be  found  here.  The  coal  mines  are  in  the  extreme 
south  of  the  county  in  the  vicinity  of  Robertsdale,  Woodvale,  Broad 
Top  City,  Dudley.  A  number  of  furnaces  that  formerly  gave  em- 
ployment to  several  thousand  men  have  been  closed  in  recent  years. 


Broad  Top  Mountain  in  Huntingdon,  Bradford  and  Fulton  counties, 
contains  an  eastern  or  outlying  basin  of  coal  of  80  square  miles  in 
extent.  The  coal  has  been  known  to  exist  in  this  part  of  the  country 
since  1800  and  has  been  worked  more  or  less  since. 

JUNIATA  COUNTY 

One  of  the  smallest  counties  in  the  Presbytery,  Juniata  County  is 
given  over  almost  entirely  to  agricultural  pursuits.  i\bout  ten  miles 
wide  by  about  fifty  long,  it  stretches  in  a  gentle  curve  between  the 
Tuscarora  and  Shade  Mountains  from  the  Susquehanna  River  to 
the  bend  of  the  Juniata  River  below  Newton  Hamilton  on  the 
Huntingdon  County  line.  No  minerals  to  speak  of  are  obtained  in 
Juniata  County,  but,  as  has  been  stated,  the  county  is  strictly  agri- 
cultural. 

MIFFLIN  COUNTY 

Situated  in  the  mountains  and  valleys,  Mifflin  County,  the  small- 
est in  the  entire  Presbytery,  is  largely  agricultural.  Limestone  for 
blast  furnaces  is  quarried  at  Naginey.  The  Standard  Steel  Works, 
and  the  Logan  Steel  Works  at  Burnham,  give  employment  to  some 
4.000  or  5,000  men  when  they  are  running  full  time.  The  "Big 
A'alley"  in  this  county  has  some  of  the  finest  farms  and  the  best  stock 
in  the  entire  State  of  Pennsylvania.  Extensive  tracts  are  held  by 
the  Amish  in  this  Big  Valley  and  a  careful  study  of  these  people  and 
their  influence  would  be  of  great  interest. 


RACES 

The  figures  for  the  Government  Census  of  1910  are  not  yet  avail- 
able, but  a  study  of  the  different  counties  for  the  past  thirty  years  is 
of  significant  interest : 


1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

Bedford    

Blair   

Centre    

Clearfield    

Huntingdon    

Juniata   

Mifflin 

29.635 
38,740 
34,418 
25.741 
31.251 
17,390 
17,508 

34.929 
52,740 
37.922 
43,408 
33.954 
18,227 
19,577 

38.644 
70.866 
43,269 
69,565 
35.751 
16,655 
19,996 

39.468 
85.099 
42.894 
80,614 
34.650 
16.054 
23,160 

DENSITY 

The  total  population  for  the  Presbytery  according  to  the  Census 
of  1900  was  321,939,  a  density  of  58  persons  per  square  mile. 

The  density  of  population  for  the  entire  State  is  156.8. 

The  death  rate  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  as  a  whole  for  the 
native  population  according  to  the  latest  report  was  14.3  per  1,000. 

The  death  rate  per  1,000  of  the  foreign  population  was  22.6. 

The  death  rate  per  1,000  of  whites  was  16.1 ;  of  blacks,  28.2. 

No  figures  for  emigration  can  be  obtained,  but  the  general  report 
is  that  there  is  a  great  movement  among  the  young  people,  young 
men  especially,  from  the  farms  to  the  large  cities  in  the  East,  or  to 
farms  or  the  railroads  of  the  West. 

There  has  been  no  great  recent  influx  of  foreigners  into  the  Pres- 
bytery. Much  of  the  foreign  population,  especially  among  the  Slavs, 
has  been  here  for  a  number  of  years.  The  Italian  immigration  is  a 
recent  one,  but  it  is  a  transient  one  in  many  trades. 

The  chief  causes  of  the  aggregation  of  foreigners  hold  true  here 
as  in  most  other  parts  of  the  country,  viz :  commercial,  construction, 
and  manufacturing  enterprises.  Very  few  foreigners  settle  in  the 
strictly  rural  communities,  but  are  found  almost  wholly  around  the 
soft  coal  mines,  the  furnaces,  brick  yards,  tanneries  and  stone  and 
lime  works.  Although  in  the  largest  manufacturing  centers — Al- 
toona,  with  its  Pennsylvania  Railroad  shops,  employing  when  the 
works  are  running  full  about  15,000  men,  and  at  Burnham,  at  the 
Logan  and  the  Standard  Steel  Works,  employing  about  5,000  men — 
few  foreigners  are  to  be  found. 

The  predominance  of  men  over  women  among  the  foreigners  is 
very  large.  A  great  percentage  of  the  men  are  unmarried,  but  many 
of  the  married  foreigners  who  are  in  this  country  are  here  without 
their  families,  so  that  the  problem  to  be  met  is  practically  that  of  the 
homeless  man  in  a  strange  land. 


'fe' 


The   following  nationalities   are   found   in   considerable   numbers 


^t5 


throughout  the  Presbytery : 

English,        German,        German-Austrian,  Swedish,  Dutch, 

Scotch,  Irish,  Welsh,  Belgian,  Italian, 

Slav,  including  many  divisions,  Hungarian. 


Native,  born  of  Native  Parents  (White) 248,702 

Native,  born  of  Foreign  Parents  (White) 37,169 

Foreign  Born  (White)   23,481 

8 


COUNTRY  OF  BIRTH 

FOREIGN    BORN 


County 

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Bedford  

748 

107    61 

1 

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1.57 

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27    43 

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Blair 

5,636 

7 

377     4 

3 

13 

493' 3 

28 

2,262 

319 

8 

64 

25  982 

316 

4 

80 

3 

68 

2 

254 

87 

73    55 

4 

87 

Centre 

2.156 

237     3  . . 

11 

362 

8 

243 

552 

11 

5 

. .  263 

67 

7 

1 

35 

.... 

2 

67 

137 

50    49 

56 

Clearfield  . . 

13.411 

54 

1,354  152,  3 

25 

2,807  2 

348 

1,192 

1,130 

10 

26 

41880 

400 

78 

107 

95 

362 

20 

523 

1,200 

1,900  449 

1 

289 

Huntingdon 

1,089 

2 

212    14 

3 

1181 

20 

194 

17 

4 

152 

229 

4 

7 

26 

17 

16;  32 

22 

Juniata 

Mifflin 

119 

348 

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22 

1 

1 

48 
98 

25 

48 

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17 
68 

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10 

2 

3 

1     3 

22 

Counties 

NATIVE  WHITE 
Native    Parents 

NATIVE  WHITE 
Foreign    Parents 

FOREIGN 
WHITE 

Colored 

Bedford 

Blair 

Male             Female 

18.285      18,235 
36,520    92% 

33,319     34,239 
67,558—79% 

18,536     18,459 
36,995     86% 

25,196     23,575 
48,771—60% 

15,704     15,836 
31,540    90% 
7,557       7,905 
15,462    96% 

10,913      10,943 
21,856    95% 

Male             Female 

875            827 
1,702—4% 
5,423       5,701 
11,124—13% 
1,664       1,697 
3,361     8% 
9,314       8,900 
18,214     23% 
870            804 
1,674—5% 
172            130 

302    2% 

389            403 

792    3% 

Male         Female 

494        252 
746—3% 
3,277     2,352 
5,629    7% 
1,353        802 
2,155-5% 
7,929     5,476 
13,405     16% 
771        311 
1,082—4% 
85          33 
118—1% 
214         132 
346-1% 

1% 

Centre 

Clearfield  

Huntingdon   .  . . 

Juniata    

Mifflin 

1% 
1% 
1% 

1% 

1% 

Total 

248,702 

37,169 

23,481 

i 

BEDFORD  COUNTY 

In  Bedford  County,  with  its  present  population  between  40,000 
and  50,000,  the  number  of  foreigners  of  a  recent  immigration  is  not 
large. 

The  greater  percentage  of  the  foreigners  in  Bedford  County  are 
found  in  the  northeast  corner  in  the  towns  of  Saxton,  Riddlesburg, 
Kearney,  Hopewell,  Six  Mile  Run  and  vicinity.  Included  in  the 
numbers,  as  shown  in  the  table,  of  native  whites  of  foreign  parents 


are  a  large  number  of  German  and  English.  These  are  scattered 
throughout  the  county,  but  not  in  any  large  groupings  by  nation- 
alities. 

BLAIR  COUNTY 

Blair  County  contains  the  largest  numbers  of  the  most  recently 
arrived  immigrants  of  any  county  in  the  Presbytery.  Large  numbers 
of  Italians  have  recently  come  in,  settling  in  and  about  Altoona,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Williamsburg  and  about  Tyrone.  Near  Williamsburg 
and  in  Altoona,  a  recent  Slavish  immigration  is  found. 

The  Italians  who  were  at  Hollidaysburg  a  short  time  ago  have 
now  gone.  This  moving  about  is  a  big  problem  in  conducting  mis- 
sion work  for  foreigners,  especially  among  the  Italians.  They  are 
in  one  quarry  in  one  county  to-day,  and  either  in  another  county 
near  by  to-morrow,  or  out  of  the  State  altogether.  The  Germans 
and  Slavs  and  Hungarians  are  much  less  mobile  than  the  Italians. 

The  foreign  population  of  Altoona  is  rapidly  increasing.  Italians 
and  Russian  Jews  furnish,  by  far,  the  largest  percentage  of  this  new 
influx.  The  large  numbers  of  Germans  and  Irish  are  an  older 
immigration,  and  these  so  rapidly  assimilate  that  they  soon  lose  their 
identity  as  foreigners. 

CENTRE  and  CLEARFIELD  COUNTIES 

In  the  two  counties  of  Centre  and  Clearfield  together,  we  find  the 
largest  numbers  of  foreigners,  but  they  consist  principally  of  the  older 
immigration.  The  greatest  percentage  of  these  is  Slavish,  Letts, 
Hungarians  (Magyars),  Poles  and  Bohemians,  Slovaks,  Ruthenians 
and  other  divisions  coming  from  countries  bordering  the  Baltic  Sea 
and  the  Black  Sea. 

Some  Italians  are  found  in  these  counties,  but  they  seldom  work 
underground.  They  are  found  in  the  quarries,  tanneries,  brick  yards 
and  on  the  railroads. 

Many  of  these  Slavic  families  have  been  in  the  region  of  Winburne 
and  Morrisdale  Mines  for  twenty  or  thirty  years.  Their  girls  have 
grown  up  and  married  coal  diggers  and  their  boys  are  now  in  the 
coal  banks  learning  to  dig  coal  for  a  living.  There  is  not  much 
shifting  around  among  these  miners  and  many  of  them  would  own 
property  if  possible.  The  more  ambitious,  however,  do  manage  to 
either  leave  the  mines  to  engage  in  some  other  work  altogether,  or 
try  to  invest  their  savings  in  a  home,  if  allowed  to  do  so  by  the 
mining  companies. 

10 


General  Distribution  of  Slavs  and 
Hungarians  throughout  the  Presbytery. 
Each  circle  indicates  one  hundred. 


^^., 

•^..- 

«  '; 

li 

The  coal  mines  claim  the  foreign  workers,  as  usual,  in  these  coun- 
ties. In  the  vicinity  of  Houtzdale,  Madera,  Smoke  Run,  Decarrea, 
Blain  City,  Coalport,  Ramey  and  Osceola,  we  find  the  Slavs;  near 
Philipsburg,  Slavs  and  Italians.  Within  trolley  connection  of  Phil- 
ipsburg,  at  and  about  Winburne,  are  to  be  found  large  numbers  of 
Slavs,  including  the  many  branches  of  this  people.  Extending  along 
the  hills,  as  far  as  Peale  and  west  to  Morrisdale  Mines,  including 
Munson  and  Hawk  Run  and  in  the  many  mines  in  and  about  these 
places,  there  are  about  4,000  or  5,000  Slavs.  Snow  Shoe  or  Clarence 
has  about  500  Slavs,  a  large  number  of  whom  are  Ruthenians. 

HUNTINGDON  COUNTY 

Nearly  one-third  of  the  foreign  population  in  Huntingdon  County 
are  German  and  English.  The  remaining  portion  are  found  largely 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  county  in  the  Broad  Top  Region, 
embracing  the  towns  of  Robertsdale,  Woodvale,  Dudley,  Jacobs, 
Rocky  Ridge  and  the  many  small  settlements  along  the  mountains  in 
and  about  the  coal  mine  towns.  In  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
county,  in  the  vicinity  of  Birmingham,  are  to  be  found  in  the  stone 
quarries  two  or  three  hundred  Slavs.  These  group  themselves  with 
the  foreigners  in  Union  Furnace,  East  Tyrone  and  vicinity,  in  "Blair 
County. 

Mount  Union  has  a  considerable  number  of  foreigners  in  the  tan- 
nery and  the  brick  yards — 500  Roumanians,  50  Italians.  The  Rou- 
manians, mostly  unmarried  men  or  men  without  families,  have  been 
in  Mount  Union  only  from  five  to  eight  years.  Some  of  them,  how- 
ever, have  sent  for  their  families,  as  they  have  come  to  stay. 
The  superintendent  states  that  they  are  not  only  a  most  desirable 
class  of  citizens,  but  that  they  are  good  workers  and  are  to  be  de- 
pended upon. 

JUNIATA  COUNTY 

Juniata  County  is  largely  agricultural  and  hence  has  few  foreign- 
ers of  recent  arrival.  A  scattering  number  of  Italians  working  on 
the  railroads,  or  here  and  there  a  group  of  four  or  five  families,  con- 
stitute the  foreign  problem  in  this  county.  The  county  is  confronting 
the  question  of  a  decrease  in  population  owing  to  the  moving  away 
from  the  farms  to  the  large  cities  of  the  country.  The  former  large 
families  of  native  born  whites  are  being  replaced  in  many  townships 
by  former  hired  hands  or  tenants. 

U 


MIFFLIN  COUNTY 

The  people  in  this  county  are  especially  interesting  on  account  of 
the  Cosmopolitan  character  of  their  make-up.  Up  and  down  the 
Big  Valley  are  the  Amish,  with  their  "Old  School"  and  several  varie- 
ties of  "New  Schools."  About  the  quarry  at  Naginey  is  a  gathering 
of  Italians ;  at  the  Steel  Works  at  Burnham  there  are  employed  some 
4,000  or  5,000  men,  mostly  native  born  Americans,  who  come  from 
Lewistown,  Reedsville,  and  as  far  away  as  Milroy.  Many  of  them 
worked  on  farms  years  ago,  or  ran  small  enterprises  about  their  native 
towns.  A  study  of  the  influence  of  these  many  factors,  on  the  social 
and  economic  progress  of  this  county,  would  be  most  interesting;  a 
study  of  the  Amish  with  their  various  divisions  of  modernism  and 
acceptance  of  newer  modes  of  living  and  of  dress  should  not  be 
omitted  from  a  more  exhaustive  study  of  the  sociological  conditions 
of  the  entire  county  and  its  social  life. 


Present  General  Distribution  of  the  Newer 
Immigration  as  Found  by  the  Survey 

CLEARFIELD    COUNTY  gi^^^g  Italians  Jews  Swedes 

Glen  Ritchey  and  Vicinity.  .  .  .  200 

Curwensville  and  Vicinity.  ..  .  300  100  ..  .. 

Philipsburg  and  Vicinity 400 

Ramey  600 

Madera 800 

Smoke  Run,  Decarra  &  Vicin- 
ity    500 

Blain  City,  Coalport  &  Vicin- 
ity    600  100 

Osceola  and  Vicinity 300  100 

Sandy  Ridge 100 


CENTRE  COUNTY 

Munson  and  Hawk  Run 1,000 

Winburne 2,000 

Morrisdale  Mines 400 

Peale— Pleasant  Hill 500 

Clarence   500 


12 


100 


100 
300 


#rsrRlBUTION  OF  ITALIANS 

jtach  circle  indicates  one  hundred  resident 
Italians. 

Many  transient  Italians  are  located  on 
tli«  Railroads  throughout  the  Presbytery. 
These  have  not  been  indicated. 


BLAIR  COUNTY  siavs 

Tyrone ...  200 

Union  Furnace  and  Vicinity.  .  100 

Williamsburg— ^It.  Etna 200 

Carlim — Covedale   100 

Franklin  Forge 400 

Canoe  Creek — Clover  Creek.  .  400 

Altoona    200 

MIFFLIN  COUNTY 

Naginey  and  Shraders 

HUNTINGDON  COUNTY 

Robertsdale    100 

Woodvale •    .  . 

Broad  Top  City  and  Vicinity. 

Dudley  and  Vicinity 100 

Birmingham    100 

Mt.  Union 500 

Rocky  Ridge  and  Vicinity.  .  .  .  100 

BEDFORD  COUNTY 

Saxton  and  Vicinity 100 

Riddlesburg  and  Vicinity.  .  .  .  200 

Kearney  and 100 

Vicinity 


Italians 

100 
100 
200 
100 
200 
5,000 


100 


200 

300 

100 

50 

100 


Jews 


Swedes 


200 
100 
100 
100 


1,200 


NATIVE  AND  FOREIGN  BORN  POPULATION 

By  Counties 


County 


Native   Born 


1900 


Bedford   38,720 

Blair    I  79,463 

Centre  '  40,738 

Clearfield  67,203 

Huntingdon  ....  33,561 

Juniata 15,935 

Mifflin ;  22,812 


X890 


37,815 
64,989 
40,586 
55,795 
34,638 
16,522 
19,609 


1880 


34,100 
48,882 
36,708 
37,918 
32,784 
18,003 
19,087 


Foreign   Born 


1900 


748 

5,636 

2,156 

13,411 

1,089 

119 

348 


1890 


829 

5,877 

2,683 

13,770 

1,113 

133 

387 


1880 


829 
3.858 
1,214 
5,490 
1,170 
224 
490 


13 


POPULATION  OF  TOWNS  OVER  2,500,  IN   1900 


Town 


Populat'n 


Altoona 38,973 

Bellefonte   4,216 

Clearfield    5,081 

Hollidaysburg 2,998 

Huntingdon 6,053 


Lewistown 
Philipsburg 
Tyrone   .  .  . 


4,451 
3,266 
5,847 


Native 
Born 


35,672 
4,027 
4,771 
2,850 
5,828 
4,335 
2,966 
5,638 


Foreign 
Born 


3,301 
189 

310 
148 
225 
116 
300 
209 


Wliite 


38,566 
4,025 
5,029 
2,881 
5,989 
4,317 
3,173 
5,731 


Negro 


406 
191 

51 
116 
122 
132 

92 
115 


INCREASE  IN  POPULATION 


Counties 

1900 

1S90 

Per  Cent 

Bedford  

Blair    

34,468 
85,099 
42,894 
80,614 
34,650 
23,160 
16,054 

38,644 
70,866 
43,269 
69,565 
35,751 
19,996 
16,655 

2.1 

20  1 

Centre    

Clearfield 

Huntingdon   . . . 

Mifflin 

Juniata    

0.9   Decrease 
15.9 

3.1   Decrease 
15.8 

3.6  Decrease 

NEGRO  POPULATION 


Counties 

1900 

1890 

1880 

Bedford   

Blair 

499 
784 
382 
218 
352 
172 
162 

587 
801 
466 
184 
315 
170 
169 

577 
483 

Centre 

Clearfield 

Huntingdon    .  . . 

Juniata 

Mifflin  

348 
121 
280 
261 
215 

14 


-rOFUL/)  TlO/i 


C0UMTIE5 

aumd 


T — r — r~i — r — r — f — i — f — i — i 


mi/t 


I 


amf! 


tiumm 


OEomo 


muH 


mim 


3 


i.^  JO  ^  jf~c         ^ 


0 


I 


] 


COMMUNICATION  AND  TRANSPORTA- 
TION 

In  an  old  history  of  one  of  the  counties,  we  find  the  following  facts 
concerning  transportation : 

"In  almost  any  given  region  of  territory,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
centres  or  chief  seats  of  the  past  and  present  population  has  occupied 
practically  the  same  ground,  and  so  general  is  this  rule  that  where  a 
marked  exception  has  occurred  peculiar  and  potent  causes  may  be 
looked  for  as  its  explanation.  As  a  natural  sequence  to  this  truth 
that  the  centres  of  population  of  successive  races  have  been  generally 
one  and  the  same,  it  follows  that  the  highways  of  travel  in  the  past 
and  in  the  present  most  similarly  coincide  or  approximate.  The  lines 
along  which,  with  roar  and  rumble  the  iron  horse  now  rushes  with  its 
mighty  load,  making  an  old-time  day's  journey  in  60  minutes,  are 
almost  exactly  coincident  with  the  first  rude  wagon  roads  of  the 
pioneers  of  a  century  and  more  ago  and  also  with  the  paths  and 
trails  along  the  water  courses  and  through  the  easiest  mountain- 
passes  trodden  from  time  immemorial  by  the  moccasined  foot  of  the 
red  man.  In  one  respect  then  it  is  literally  true  that  civilization  has 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  barbarism ;  that  the  skilled  surveyor  and 
engineer  have  followed  with  scientific  instruments  where  the  native 
found  the  easiest  lines  of  transportation." 

Since  this  was  written  several  trolley  systems  have  been  put  into 
different  parts  of  the  Presbytery  and  though  the  author  of  years  ago 
states  that  "it  is  literally  true  that  civilization  has  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  barbarism"  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  along  these  lines 
of  interurban  transportation,  as  well  as  along  the  several  railways  in 
the  Presbytery,  may  be  seen  housing  and  sanitary  conditions  that 
would  far  surpass  in  its  lowness  of  standard  the  hut,  shack,  tepee 
or  whatever  might  have  been  the  home  of  the  savage  mentioned. 

The  community  is  well  supplied  with  railroad  facilities — a  few 
trolley  systems,  good  roads,  telegraphs,  telephones,  post-ofifices  and 
rural  free  deliveries. 

There  are  plenty  of  agencies  to  agitate  and  put  through  the  best 
methods  of  transportation;  the  quickest  and  cheapest  modes  of  min- 
ing and  quarrying  and  tanning,  but  the  agencies  for  the  study  of 
better  housing  of  the  man  in  the  coal  bank  and  in  the  quarry,  the 
most  improved  methods  of  getting  water  to  the  house  of  a  miner  that 
he  may  maintain  a  fairly  decent  standard  of  living,  the  establishment 
of  social  and  economic  agencies  for  the  uplift  of  the  stranger  in  the 
new  country — these  agencies  are  indeed  few. 

15 


RELIGION 

Perhaps  few  communities  of  the  same  area  could  be  found  in  this 
country  where  there  are  more  rehgious  denominations.  The  general 
attitude  of  the  community  toward  religious  work  is  very  sym- 
pathetic. 

Following  is  a  list  of  the  principal  denominations  found  in  the 
Presbytery  : 

1.  Presbyterian  12.  Friends 

2.  Methodist  13.  United  Brethren 

3.  Baptist  14.  Brethren 

4.  Amish  15.  Evangelical 

5.  Congregational  16.  Reformed  Church 

6.  Episcopal  17.  Seventh  Day  Adventists 

7.  Roman  Catholic  18.  Lutheran 

8.  Greek  Catholic  19.  Christian  Science 

9.  Church  of  God  20.  Methodist  Protestant 

10.  Church  of  Christ  21.  African  Meth.  Episcopal 

11.  United  Presbyterian 

From  one  end  of  the  Presbytery  to  the  other,  the  same  conditions 
in  the  smaller  towns  and  cities  were  found  in  regard  to  the  Protestant 
Churches.  They  are  the  social  agency  in  the  town;  the  village  or 
in  the  country.  To  them  the  townspeople  look  for  what  regulated 
recreation  they  have.  In  many  places  the  Church  is  absolutely  the 
only  place  where  people  can  give  expression  to  their  social  tendencies 
and  desires.  To  be  sure,  some  towns  have  a  dance  hall  or  two,  a 
number  of  saloons  and  pool  rooms,  but  these  do  not  attract  the  best 
people.  In  one  town,  the  men  at  the  brick  yards  stated  that  the  only 
decent  recreation  for  miles  around  was  "Church  Doins."  They  said, 
however,  in  speaking  of  the  Church  picnics,  that  they  are  always 
small  and  clannish.  The  Methodist  brothers  and  sisters  did  not  care 
to  have  the  Presbyterian  crowd  join  them,  and,  of  course,  neither 
of  them  wanted  to  go  to  the  Lutheran  picnic  or  to  go  for  a  good  time 
with  the  Baptists.  "You  see,"  said  one  young  fellow,  "the  crowds 
are  different,  and  a  fellow,  well,  he  just  doesn't  seem  so  awful  wel- 
come, you  know,  in  the  other  place,  and  a  stranger ! — well,  he — 
well !  I  dunno !"  This  was  in  a  town  of  about  1,500  or  1,600  inhab- 
itants. During  the  recent  hard  times  many  men  were  out  of  work 
in  this  town.  There  was  no  other  agency  in  the  place  but  the  Church 
that  could  furnish  relief  for  the  actual  suffering  that  was  close  at 
hand.  Many  of  the  men,  when  the  yards  shut  down,  had  nothing; 
it  being  a  bit  hard  to  save  up  against  a  rainy  day  on  $9,  $10  or  $12 

16 


a  week,  especially  if  the  family  happened  to  be  large.  The  churches 
of  this  town  came  to  the  front  and  through  the  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  the 
E.  L.  Societies  and  the  Ladies'  Aid  Societies,  they  saw  that  no  one 
in  town  really  suffered  from  actual  hunger  or  want. 

No  city  in  the  Presbytery,  with  the  exception  of  Altoona,  is  really 
large  enough  for  a  Charity  Organization  Society,  so  the  Church  must 
take  up  this  matter  in  as  scientific  a  way  as  possible. 

In  the  Sociological  Conference  conducted  by  the  Departments  of 
Church  and  Labor  and  Immigration  recently  in  New  York  City,  Dr. 
Edward  T.  Devine,  Secretary  of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization 
Society,  in  a  paper  on  "The  Church  and  Secular  Agencies,"  said: 
"After  severe  self-examination  and  taking  to  heart  the  frank  counsels 
of  candid  friends,  the  churches  in  the  end  are  reassured  and  not 
perturbed  as  to  their  own  right  to  be,  as  to  the  value  of  the  goods 
they  have  to  market,  reassured  as  to  the  imperative  need  of  the 
services  that  they  alone  are  in  position  to  give  and  of  the  fundamental 
methods  which  they  have  employed — that  is  to  say,  worship  and 
prayers,  administration  of  the  Sacrament,  exhortation,  exposition  and 
service.  But  although  assured  of  the  value  of  these  things,  they 
realize  that  there  are  new  and  large  responsibilities  and  opportunities 
which  are  as  yet  unmet,  that  the  churches,  instead  of  concentrating 
their  attention  on  the  erection  of  a  building  and  the  filling  of  their 
pews  and  ministering  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  members,  must  lose 
their  life  in  the  larger  life  of  the  community  that  it  may  find  it  in 
the  larger  and  higher  life  of  that  community  to  which  the  Church 
thus  ministers." 

To  be  sure,  in  large  cities,  the  churches  have  no  efficient  mechanism 
to  deal  with  the  many  important  problems  which  confront  a  city. 
There  are  other  agencies  for  carrying  on  these  lines,  Charity  Organ- 
izations, the  Departments  of  Government,  the  Police  Department,  the 
Health  Department,  the  Trades  Unions,  the  philanthropic  and  char- 
itable societies  that  are  carrying  on  a  non-sectarian  work  for  the 
general  improvement  of  conditions.  If  these  are  understood  by  the 
Church  and  if  there  is  a  proper  cooperation  between  the  Church  and 
them,  each  is  helped  in  a  way  that  cannot  be  measured.  But  in  the 
small  towns,  in  the  villages,  as  we  find  them  throughout  this  great 
Presbytery,  these  many  agencies  for  the  relief  of  poverty,  for  the 
correction  of  bad  housing,  for  the  probation  of  wayward  boys  and 
girls,  for  better  sanitation,  for  decent  recreation — for  proper  super- 
vision of  amusements  and  for  many  other  things,  are  not  to  be  found. 
What  agency,  then,  is  to  furnish  the  machinery  for  carrying  on  this 

17 


work  which  is  really  Christian  ?  Is  it  to  be  the  school  boards  through- 
out the  counties,  hedged  about  as  they  are  by  politics — is  it  to  be  the 
companies  operating  the  coal  mines;  the  furnaces  and  the  company- 
stores  ;  is  it  to  be  the  local  politician  ?  The  people  are  not  looking  to 
these  agencies.  They  never  have  looked  to  them  to  solve,  for  them,  the 
problems  that  meet  them  in  these  small  towns.  They  look  to  the 
Church,  and  what  shall  the  Churches  in  the  Presbytery  do  about  it? 
As  Dr.  Devine  says,  the  Churches  realize  that  they  have  larger  re- 
sponsibilities yet  unmet  and  that  they  should  not  be  too  much  con- 
cerned with  the  mere  filling  of  pews. 

A  Catholic  priest  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Presbytery  had  in 
his  town,  for  his  parishioners,  a  large  number  of  Slavs.  For  twenty 
miles  up  the  line,  however,  there  stretched  a  series  of  mining  camps 
operated  by  more  Slavs.  Many  of  them  were  living  there  with 
their  families  and  the  Church  needed  them.  A  special  train  was 
put  on  for  Sundays,  one  coming  down  in  the  morning  and  going 
back  at  night.  The  people  came  to  Church.  No  doubt  the  recreation 
did  them  good;  the  change  of  scene  and  the  mingling  together  was 
pleasant,  but  what  of  the  real  good  done,  what  of  the  life  during 
the  week  in  the  forlorn  little  towns  up  the  line;  what  of  the  condi- 
tions on  the  streets  of  the  towns  and  camps  that  knew  no  street 
lights;  what  of  the  poor,  unsanitary  houses  and  the  ignorance  and 
sin  and  want? 

The  general  Ruthenian  missionary  of  the  Home  Board  said  that 
when  he  went  to  the  homes  of  many  of  the  poor  in  the  far  away 
camps  and  towns  of  miners  and  ranchers;  when  the  housewife  in- 
vited him  to  dinner,  he  often  asked  to  be  allowed  to  cook  the  meal 
for  himself  and  for  the  family.  And  they  would  watch  with  wonder 
the  "Father,"  as  they  called  him,  prepare  the  simple  dishes.  They 
would  watch  and  learn  and  admire.  This  was  indeed  a  strange  man 
who  was  able  to  teach  them  to  live  better,  not  only  spiritually  but 
physically. 

These  people,  then,  came  to  the  Catholic  priest  just  mentioned 
and  to  his  church — not  he  to  them.  And  what  about  the  standard 
and  morals  taught  when  they  did  reach  the  church?  A  man,  one 
Sunday,  after  the  service,  stayed  to  drink  beer  in  the  basement  room 
of  this  church,  as  was  the  custom.  He  drank  too  much  and  when 
his  companions  went  away,  they  found  him  unable  to  walk  and  rolled 
him  under  a  row  of  chairs  at  the  side  of  the  room.  In  the  evening 
when  the  janitor  came  to  lock  up,  he  found  the  man  still  there.  He 
picked  him  up,  managed  to  get  him  to  the  front  door,  and  pushed 

18 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES 


BEDFORD  CO. 

1.  Betiford 

2.  Cypher 

3.  Everett 

4.  Man's  Choice 

5.  Saxttm 

6.  Schellsburg 


2. 


BLAIR  CO. 

3.    CLEARFIELD  CO 

1. 

Arch  Spring 

1 

Ansonville 

O 

Altoona— l.-it 

2. 

Bilger 

.1. 

Altooiia — -'iid 

3 

Boardnan 

4. 

Altoona— 3rd 

4. 

(~learfi,-l(i 

5. 

Altonna— Broad  St. 

t>. 

Coalport 

fi. 

Bell  wood 

6. 

Curvensville 

7. 

Puncansville 

7. 

Glen  Hope 

«. 

HoUidaysbnrg 

8. 

Glen  Kichey 

9. 

MartiiiHbnrg 

9. 

Hoiit^dale 

10 

.Tuniata 

10. 

Irvona 

11. 

South  Altoona 

11. 

Hylertown 

12. 

Tyrone 

12. 

Kertnoor 

13. 

Willianisbiirg 

13. 

Madera 

^ 

14. 

Osfeola  Mills 

^ 

1-5. 

Pine  Grove 

J 

Ifi. 
17. 

Philipsburg 
KiMiiey 

Jr 

•  .rV- 

l.s. 

Wnibiinie 

CENTRE  CO. 


HUNTINGDON  CO. 
1.    Alexandria 


1. 

•1. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 


Bellefonte 
BiiflFalo  Run 
Center  Hall 
Le  Mont 
Moshannon 
Milesburg 
Peale 

Pine  Grove  Mills 
Port  Matilda 
Spring  Mills 
State  College 
Union  vi  lie 
Walker 


JUNIATA  CO. 

1.  .McAUisterville 

2.  MeCullock's  Mills 

3.  Mitflintown 

4.  Port  Koval 

5.  Peru  Mills 

6.  Spruce  Hill 

7.  Waterloo 


7. 


2. 

Birniinghaui 

3! 

Cottage 

4. 

Greysville 

.5. 

Huntingdon 

fi. 

McAlevey's  Ft. 

7. 

Mt.  Union 

8. 

Mapleton  Depot 

9. 

Orbisonia 

10. 

Petersburg 

11. 

Robertsdale 

12. 

Shade  Gap 

1.3. 

Shirleysburg 

14. 

Spruce  Creek 

MIFFLIN  CO. 

1. 

Belleville 

2. 

Burnham 

3. 

Lewistown 

4. 

Milroy 

5. 

Mc\eyto\vn 

6. 

Newton  Hamilton 

7. 

Keedtville 

8. 

Vira 

him  out.     The  man   fell  down   the   front  steps  of  the  church   and 
broke  his  neck. 

We  have  reports  from  various  localities  where  priests  visit  towns 
once  a  month  or  once  in  six  weeks  to  conduct  a  service  for  the  for- 
eigners found  there. 

In  Altoona,  the  Catholic  priest  is  somewhat  anxious  lest  there  be 
too  much  proselyting  on  the  part  of  the  Presbyterian  churches,  among 
the  Italians  especially.  The  Methodist  Church  is  conducting  the 
only  religious  work  for  Italians  in  Altoona,  tliough  there  are  over 
5,000  Italians  in  the  city.  The  Christian  Endeavor  Societies  of  the 
city  cooperate  in  the  maintenance  of  a  night  school  for  Italians.  They 
employ  an  experienced  teacher,  rent  rooms  and  carry  on  the  work  of 
teaching  English  and  giving  ideas  of  citizenship  to  the  Italian  pupils. 

The  two  Sunshine  Societies  of  Altoona  cooperate  with  the  Relief 
Department  of  the  Salvation  Army  in  looking  after  needy,  worthy 
cases  among  the  poor,  visiting  the  sick,  etc.  This  Alliance  reported 
that  very  few  requests  for  charity  came  from  the  foreigners  of 
Altoona. 

There  is  a  Railroad  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Altoona, 
but,  as  the  name  would  indicate,  it  is  for  the  use  of  employees  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  none  others  are  allowed  to  join.  There 
is  a  movement  on  foot  toward  the  erection  of  a  city  Young  ]\Ien's 
Christian  Association  as  it  is  felt  that  there  is  a  great  need,  among 
the  town  men  and  boys  outside  of  the  railroad  employ,  for  the 
benefits  that  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has  to  offer. 
Even  in  Altoona,  the  largest  city  of  this  Presbytery  where 
one  might  think  there  would  be  enough  agencies  outside  of  the 
Church  to  do  the  social  work  of  the  city,  we  find  the  burden  shifted 
largely  upon  the  47  churches  of  16  different  denominations  in  the 
city.  Local  option  for  the  country  is  being  handled  by  the  ministers' 
associations.  Classes  of  young  men  studying  civic  questions,  good 
government  clubs,  tennis  clubs,  are  being  conducted  by  the  Church. 
Even  night  schools  for  foreigners  have  been  put  upon  the  churches 
of  Altoona. 

In  towns  where  social  activities  lack  efficient  leaders,  what  agency 
is  so  well  fitted  to  take  up  these  many  problems  as  the  Christian 
Church  ? 

In  Ex-President  Roosevelt's  Commission  on  Country  Life  a  very 
important  place  is  given  to  the  Country  Church.     Among  the  ques- 

19 


tions  included  in  a  questionnaire  sent  by  this  Commission  to  repre- 
sentative men  throughout  the  Presbytery  was  the  following: 

1.  "What  changes  in  Church  methods  are  required  to  meet  pres- 
ent conditions?"' 

A  few  answers  to  this  question  sent  by  the  Commission  to  some 
of  the  men  in  the  Presbytery,  indicate  their  attitude  of  mind. 

'"Less  stress  on  theology,  creed  and  dogma — and  more  upon  practi- 
cal religion ;  take  the  Church  to  the  people — meet  them  in  homes  and 
school  districts ;  better  ministers ;  the  Church  should  be  made  a 
greater  social  center;  more  attention  should  be  given  to  impressing 
the  need  of  religion  for  the  present  life  as  well  as  for  the  next,  and 
that  "Faith  without  works  is  dead";  organization  of  more  young 
people's  societies;  a  more  charitable  and  fraternal  understanding  of 
the  social  and  financial  conditions  of  the  people  by  the  ministers  and 
ofificers  of  the  Church;  dying  out  of  some  churches,  and  withdrawal 
or  federation  of  others." 

In  many  cases  this  question  was  left  unanswered.  The  ministers 
or  the  County  Superintendent  of  Schools,  the  merchant  or  the  farmer 
who  was  answering  the  question  evidently  had  no  ideas  on  what 
changes  in  Church  methods  would  be  required  to  meet  present  con- 
ditions. 

Two  other  questions  of  special  interest  in  this  connection  were : 
"What  are  the  churches  doing  for  the  community  life;  its  industrial, 
social,  educational  and  recreational  development?"  "What  more 
could  and  should  they  do  in  these  lines?" 

To  these  questions,  the  answers  were  for  the  most  part  very  unsat- 
isfactory. One  man  suggests  that  "they  should  encourage  the  very 
poor."  Another  suggests  that  the  Church  is  now  doing  very  good 
work  along  the  lines  mentioned.  However,  that  some  of  those 
answering  these  questions  realize  what  might  be  done  is  evidenced 
by  such  replies  as :  "More  thorough  organization  is  necessary — a 
closer  touch  with  the  real  life  of  the  people — more  harmonious  work." 

In  this  connection,  a  word  about  the  splendid  Church  Federation 
of  Mifflin  County  will  show  what  this  Federation  is  doing.  The 
object  of  the  Federation  is: 

First.  To  express  the  unity  and  fellowship  of  the  constituent 
churches  in  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Divine  Lord  and  Saviour. 

Second.  To  bring  the  constituent  Christian  bodies  into  united  ser- 
vice for  Christ  and  the  world. 

Third.     To  encourage  devotional  fellowship,  mutual  counsel,  and 

20 


united  effort,  to  promote  the  spiritual  life  and  religious  activities  of 
the  churches. 

Fourth.  To  secure  and  exercise  a  larger  combined  influence 
through  the  churches  of  Christ  in  all  matters  affecting  the  moral, 
civic,  social,  economic,  and  educational  condition  of  the  people,  so  as 
to  promote  the  application  of  the  law  of  Christ  to  every  relation  of 
human  life. 

There  are  a  number  of  committees  having  charge  of  the  different 
phases  of  the  religious  and  social  work  in  the  county. 

1.  An  Executive  Committee,  having  charge  of  matters  pertaining 
to  membership,  business  of  general  character,  and  all  objects  not 
specially  assigned  to  other  committees. 

2.  A  Religious  Extension  Committee,  having  charge  of  the  gen- 
eral condition  and  needs  of  the  churches  and  of  the  non-churched  of 
the  community. 

3.  A  Public  Morals  Committee  having  charge  of  matters  pertain- 
ing to  temperance,  excise  regulation,  law  and  order,  illegal  sports  and 
games,  immoral  plays,  shows  and  advertisements  and  such  other 
things  as  are  likely  to  work  moral  harm  in  the  community. 

4.  A  Committee  on  Economic  Problems  dealing  with  all  matters 
connected  with  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  the  employment 
of  children,  the  housing  of  the  people,  public  parks  and  recreation, 
public  sanitation  and  the  best  methods  of  securing  the  economic  wel- 
fare of  the  community. 

The  value  of  a  Federation  of  this  kind  is  obvious.  The  solving 
of  the  special  problems  which  are  discussed  in  these  conferences  are 
only  possible  by  the  getting  together  of  those  interested,  of  the  assem- 
bling of  all  data  and  statistics  to  be  had  on  any  one  given  topic  and 
by  the  combined  attack  against  any  given  wrong.  Duplication  of 
work  is  avoided,  overlapping  of  efforts  and  enterprises  are  done 
away  with,  ideas  are  exchanged,  and  men  and  agencies  otherwise 
overlooked  are  swung  into  line  in  the  forward  movement  for  the 
betterment  of  the  county. 

The  other  counties  of  the  Presbytery  might  well  fall  into  line  with 
a  movement  of  this  kind. 

One  or  two  of  the  churches  in  the  Presbytery  have  opened  their 
doors  wide  enough  to  let  in  a  few  foreigners — a  very  few  to  be  sure. 
Some  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  have  allowed 
three  or  four  Slavs  or  Italians  to  join.  In  a  few  churches  some  of 
the  foreign  children  have  found  a  place  in  the  pews  with  the  other 
children,  but  where  this  has  been  allowed,  the  report  comes  that  the 

21 


American  children  and  young  people  do  not  really  enjoy  the  presence 
of  the  alien  and  in  some  mysterious  way  the  alien  seems  always  to 
feel  this  separateness  and  soon  learns  to  stay  away. 

In  a  recent  leaflet,  "Volunteers  Wanted,"  issued  by  the  Department 
of  Immigration,  Charles  Stelzle  writes :  "In  view  of  this  big  foreign 
situation,  the  Department  of  Immigration  of  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  is  undertaking  to  enlist  men  and  women  for  social,  educa- 
tional and  religious  services  among  the  foreign-speaking  people  of 
America,  that  they  may  avail  themselves  of  an  opportunity  which  is 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  Church  in  this  country.  It  is  the 
purpose  of  the  Department  to  have  these  volunteers  for  work  among 
foreign-speaking  people  minister  to  those  who  are  living  in  their  own 
town  or  city,  unless  the  way  should  open  for  work  in  some  other 
field ;  it  is  a  movement  for  the  rendering  of  an  enlightened  educated 
Christian  service  to  those  who  are  our  neighbors.  To  this  task,  we 
must  bring  the  finest  devotion  and  consecration  and  it  is  worthy  of 
the  best  we  can  give  it.  The  problem  has  its  romance  and  its  socio- 
logical interest,  but  it  has  more  than  this — it  requires  a  missionary 
spirit  of  the  highest  type." 

The  foreigner  in  a  new  country  where  economic  conditions  are 
different  from  those  at  home,  the  farmer  from  Bohemia  or  Hungary, 
or  Russia,  suddenly  transplanted  into  a  coal  mine  of  Pennsylvania — 
and  a  great  percentage  of  our  industrial  workers  came  from  the  rural 
agricultural  districts  of  Europe— has  other  things  to  think  of  than 
the  Church.  He  is  interested  in  living  and  trying  to  fit  himself  to 
his  new  life,  but  when  he  is  to  be  married,  or  when  he  is  in  trouble, 
or  when  the  new  baby  comes  or  is  ready  to  be  baptized,  then  it  is 
that  he  turns  to  the  Church.  Using  these  opportunities  as  a  wedge, 
the  Church  can  push  on  into  the  life  of  the  foreigner  of  this  Pres- 
bytery in  a  very  active  way. 

Nearly  all  of  the  foreigners,  when  they  arrive  in  America,  are 
Catholic,  but  as  a  priest  in  New  York  recently  said :  "When  they 
become  Americanized,  they  seem  to  lose  their  Christianity."  At  any 
rate,  given  a  chance  to  think  out  problems  for  themselves,  profiting 
by  the  democratic  education  of  their  children,  they  often  feel  differ- 
ently toward  the  Church  after  a  few  years  in  this  country  and  are  apt 
to  drift  away  from  it  altogether,  and  yet,  as  stated,  when  the  special 
emergency  in  the  family  life  comes,  be  it  birth,  marriage  or  death — 
for  after  all,  these  three  are  the  big  events  in  the  simple  life  the 
foreigner  is  forced  to  live — he  turns  to  the  Church  for  help.  If  the 
Protestant  Church  can  show  that  she  can  help,  not  only  in  the  time 

22 


of  greatest  needs,  but  that  she  can  help  in  the  everyday  hving,  in 
conditions  as  they  exist  from  week  to  week,  then  to  her  the  foreigner 
will  turn  more  and  more. 

Times,  by  the  way,  have  changed  a  great  deal  since  "Years  gone 
by,^'  but  in  many  of  the  churches  the  methods  of  that  period  used 
to  preserve  the  church  or  the  social  center  have  not  changed.  From 
the  pastor  of  one  church  in  the  Presbytery  came  the  information  that 
there  was  really  no  need  for  a  social  work  for  young  men  in  his 
church,  as  there  were  few  young  men  in  the  church,  few  young  men 
in  the  town,  in  fact.  A  look  at  the  street  corners  any  night  in  the 
year,  a  glance  in  the  poolrooms  or  at  the  bars  throughout  the  town 
would  have  shown  easily  enough  whether  there  were  any  young  men 
in  the  town  or  not.  One  of  the  young  men,  quite  "a  man  about 
town,"  states  that  no  one  really  seemed  to  care  what  was  done  for 
the  fellows  of  that  town.  A  social  agency  or  two  had  been  tried,  but 
owing  to  lack  of  efficient  leadership  had  been  forced  to  close.  "No 
one  seems  to  give  a  hang,"  he  said.  "A  couple  of  weeks  ago  forty  of 
us  young  fellows  started  a  club  of  our  own.  We  don't  do  much — 
shoot  pool  and  have  the  magazines  and  have  a  place  to  go  to — a 
whole  lot  better  than  hanging  around  the  street  corners,  isn't  it?" 

In  another  town,  where  the  churches  are  absolutely  the  only  social 
centers,  there  had  been  no  church  sociable  for  over  a  year.  The 
church  people  do  not  want  them,  however  much  those  outside  may 
need  them.  The  same  church  has  not  had  a  picnic  for  a  still  longer 
period.  Such  a  tame  thing  as  a  church  picnic,  even  the  children  do 
not  care  to  attend.  Small  groups  of  people  in  the  town  get  up  picnics 
— the  young  women  have  theirs,  the  older  women  have  theirs  and  the 
children  can  have  one  whenever  and  wherever  they  wish.  It  is  felt 
that  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  could  do  a  most  efficient 
and  telling  work  in  this  town.  Every  possible  effort  has  been  made 
by  the  Presbyterian  pastor  of  this  town  to  interest  the  people  in  such 
a  work.  Interest  up  to  a  certain  extent  is  shown,  but  leadership 
among  the  people  themselves  is  lacking.  No  one  will  assume  the 
proper  responsibility.  Here,  too,  the  young  men  hang  about  the 
street  corners  nights  and  the  common  interest,  and  the  only  common 
interest — and  even  that  lacks  leadership — is  baseball.  Everywhere 
the  statement  was  met  "even  if  the  institutional  church  did  not  cost 
a  lot  of  money,  which  it  does,  where  would  we  get  men  and  women 
who  are  efficient  and  who  have  a  vision  of  this  big  work  as  a  whole 
and  are  willing  to  take  up  such  tasks  as  would  have  to  be  performed 
to  make  any  work  of  that  kind  count." 

23 


While  social  activities  in  our  big  cities  may  be  left  to  this  or  that 
agency  while  conditions,'  economic  or  moral  and  social,  may  be  made 
the  work  of  special  boards  of  investigation,  while  philanthropic  insti- 
tutions or  highly  specialized  bureaus  may  make  intensive  studies  of 
poverty,  or  employment,  or  crime,  of  recreation  or  of  school  hygiene 
or  municipal  reform — it  is  impossible  to  think  of  these  things  in  a 
rural  community  like  the  Huntingdon  Presbytery  through  any  agency 
other  than  the  Church.  The  statement  was  indeed  true  that  the 
Church,  "ministering  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  its  members,  must 
lose  its  life  in  the  larger  life  of  the  community,  that  it  may  find  it 
in  the  larger  life  of  that  community  to  which  the  Church  thus  min- 
isters." 


EDUCATION 

It  is  not  possible  in  a  report  of  this  kind  to  go  into  detail  regarding 
the  mental  differences  between  the  nationalities  and  races,  their  habits, 
emotional  natures,  imagination,  judgment. 

No  efficient  work  can  be  carried  on,  however,  by  a  religious  or 
social  body  that  does  not  carefully  study  into  this  very  phase  of  the 
work.  Each  worker  should  not  only  know  absolutely  his  own  field 
and  territory  and  the  agencies,  good  and  bad,  working  for  or  against 
the  uplift  of  the  foreigners,  but  he  must  know  his  man  as  well — 
whether  he  is  suspicious,  credulous,  whether  his  judgment  is  objec- 
tively determined  or  subjectively  determined,  whether  the  man  to  be 
reached  is  aggressive,  or  otherwise;  whether  creative  or  not — has 
everything  to  do  in  mapping  out  and  carrying  on  any  lasting  or 
telling  social  work. 

LANGUAGES  SPOKEN 

The  languages  that  are  spoken  by  any  large  number  of  people  in 
the  Presbytery  are:  English,  German,  Italian,  Hungarian  (Mag- 
yar), Lithuanian,  and  of  the  Slavic  group  particularly,  Slovak,  Bo- 
hemian, Polish,  Ruthenian,  and  others. 

A  large  percentage  of  the  people  among  the  foreigners,  however, 
are  able  to  speak  some  English.  The  children  attend  the  public  school 
in  the  towns  and  rural  communities,  and  there  are  no  colonies  of 
foreigners  so  large  that  they  are  able — as  in  the  large  cities  and  in 
isolated  manufacturing  and  government  works — to  cut  themselves  off 
from  intercourse  with  Americans  from  whom  they  must  needs  learn 
the  English  language. 

It  was  a  revelation  in  walking  along  a  country  road  in  one  of  the 

24 


counties  and  come  to  the  "Little  Old  Red  School  House  by  the 
Roadside"  to  find  the  greater  percentage  of  the  present  day  pupils 
Italians  and  Slavs. 

At  their  best,  mining  towns  are  not  beautiful  to  look  upon,  and 
there  are  few  centers  where  children  have  access  to  things  artistic 
or  aesthetic.  The  school-house  ought  to  furnish,  in  the  grey-drab 
ugliness  of  the  life  of  a  boy  or  girl  belonging  to  a  miner's  town,  a 
spot  where  at  least  reproductions  of  a  few  of  the  good  things  in  the 
world  can  be  seen  and  become  acquainted  with. 

In  the  sections  of  the  Huntingdon  Presbytery  where  most  for- 
eigners are  found,  the  dingy  frame  school-house  seems  to  take  on  the 
general  atmosphere  of  the  surroundings,  often  on  an  ugly  piece  of 
ground,  it  stands  grey  and  uncompromising  in  the  minds  of  parents 
and  children,  a  place  where  a  certain  few  years  must  be  spent  till 
the  boy  or  girl  may  get  his  or  her  working  papers.  Oftentimes,  there 
is  no  plot  of  grass  about  the  school — the  rest  of  the  towns  have  no 
plot  of  grass — why  the  school-house?  The  grey,  soiled  walls  inside, 
often  cracked  and  discolored,  know  no  beautiful  prints  or  pictures. 
Either  there  is  no  money  for  this  sort  of  thing  or  indifference  on  the 
part  of  the  teachers  or  principals  may  be  put  down  as  the  cause  of 
their  throwing  away  the  splendid  opportunity  of  bringing  cheer  to 
the  dreary  life  of  the  child. 

In  the  larger  cities  throughout  the  Presbytery  most  excellent  and 
attractive  schools  are  to  be  found.  In  some  cases,  attractive  buildings 
have  been  erected  near  mines  or  other  enterprises  as  the  result  of  the 
influence  of  a  mine  superintendent  or  public-spirited  citizens  who  have 
realized  the  true  commercial  value,  if  nothing  more,  of  good  school- 
houses. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  politics  of  the 
Pennsylvania  school  system.  This  is  a  matter  of  general  public 
knowledge.  One  has  only  to  visit  a  few  schools  to  realize  the  ineffec- 
tiveness in  a  mining  town  of  putting  in  charge  of  a  large  school,  many 
of  the  pupils  being  boys  13,  14,  15  or  16  years  old,  a  young,  inex- 
perienced woman  of  between  18  and  23  years  of  age. 

There  is  no  room  in  this  report  to  discuss  the  immense  value  of 
vocational  training  in  the  form  of  trade  schools — shop  schools — or 
even  manual  training  centers.  This  phase  of  the  educational  question 
is  the  main  plank  of  the  platform  of  all  present-day  educational  dis- 
cussions and  conventions ;  vocational  training  and  the  finding  for  the 
graduate  of  such  training  schools,  the  place  that  he  has  been  prepared 
to  fill. 

25 


If,  by  chance,  an  ambitious  boy  from  a  mining  camp  or  town 
manages  to  pass  through  High  School,  what  is  open  to  him  at  the 
other  end  ?  He  goes  to  the  city — for  there  is  nothing  left  for  him  at 
home  but  the  mines — where  he  enters  into  competition  with  other 
boys  also  graduated  from  High  School  who  have  known  the  city  and 
have  influence  there,  whereas,  if  he  had  been  properly  trained,  he 
might  have  found  in  his  native  town  a  place  worthy  of  his  ability. 

In  Altoona,  there  has  just  been  established  an  evening  trade  school 
in  connection  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  shops.  This  will  in- 
fluence very  few  of  the  foreigners  in  the  vicinity,  however.  The 
Pennsylvania  Reformatory  at  Huntingdon  offers  some  of  the  best 
courses  in  trades  in  the  country.  The  boys  from  ill-managed  homes, 
which  furnish  the  large  percentage  of  inmates  of  the  institution,  are 
given  a  chance  "when  sent  up"  of  learning  a  trade  that  they  cannot 
possibly  learn  on  the  outside  under  the  present  educational  system 
in  two  or  three  years,  a  trade  whereby  they  may  make  an  excellent 
living  when  released.  Would  that  more  boys  could  secure,  at  the 
expense  of  the  great  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  an  equally  good 
industrial  training,  without  being  sent  to  the  Reformatory. 

The  teacher  in  any  community  ought  to  be  of  the  greatest  help  to 
the  minister  of  that  community.  If  the  teacher  is  going  to  conduct 
work  with  any  degree  of  efficiency  whatever,  he  or  she  must  have  as 
thorough  a  knowledge  of  his  or  her  field  as  possible.  He  must  not 
only  know  the  individual  pupil  with  his  individual  peculiarities  and 
temperament,  but  he  must  know  the  general  make-up  of  the  com- 
munity, the  economic,  social  and  moral  standards  and  conditions  of 
the  homes  from  which  his  pupils  come. 

The  greatest  amount  of  cooperation  between  the  ministers'  asso- 
ciations and  the  school  authorities  should  in  every  case  be  fostered 
and  maintained.  When  economic  conditions  in  any  way  permit,  the 
foreign  parents  in  this  country  are  very  ambitious  for  their  children. 
The  Jewish  parents  are  no  doubt  the  most  ambitious  of  all,  surpassing 
even  the  average  American  born  parent.  Of  the  nationality  that  is 
found  in  the  foreign  centers  here,  the  Italian  comes  next,  and  the 
Slav,  as  a  big  division,  last,  though  there  are  notable  exceptions  to 
this  last  classification.  The  Bohemians,  for  instance,  and  the  Poles, 
in  many  cases,  have  shown  a  remarkable  willingness  to  sacrifice  much 
that  their  children  may  have  the  advantage  that  they  did  not  have 
and  strive  to  keep  them  in  school  as  long  as  possible. 

In  Altoona,  out  of  6,345  pupils  in  the  public  schools  there  are  over 

26 


mtiTihmH  mmm 


ILLITERffCV 


-  RBTE  -  FIK-IOOO 


rwnVE  WHITE 

nifflVE  PflKflR 

flftTIVE  riHIIE 
fflHEI&fl  FflBEflTJ 

fOREI&fl  IrtHlTE 


250  Italians.  The  school  authorities  state  that  special  care  has  been 
experienced  in  providing  them  with  efficient  teachers  and  giving  them 
opportunity  to  mix  with  the  American  pupils.  As  the  Italians  have 
been  bringing  their  families  to  this  country  for  only  the  past  six  or 
eight  years  in  Altoona  and  those  children  are  usually  small,  none  as 
yet  have  reached  the  High  School.  The  Superintendent  of  Schools 
states,  however,  that  in  six  or  eight  years  there  will  no  doubt  be 
many  Italians  attending  High  School.  No  other  one  agency  exerts 
such  a  large  influence  among  our  foreigners  as  the  public  schools. 

Life  is  dififerent  in  this  country  from  that  in  Italy  or  Russia  or 
Poland  or  Bohemia.  The  father  who  was  wont  to  work  at  home 
and  influence  greatly  the  family  life  and  thought,  now  works  in  the 
mine  or  the  factory  and  is  away  from  home  long  hours.  The  children 
receive  from  the  public  schools  their  ideas  and  ways  American.  Soon 
an  air  of  superiority  over  the  parent  is  assumed  by  the  boy  or  girl 
of  12  or  14  years  old.  They  know  English.  They  can  read  and 
write.  They  are  able  to  read  to  the  parents  at  night  the  English  books 
which  they  take  home  from  school.  They  are  Americans — the  parents 
are  apt  to  remain  foreigners. 

The  churches  in  this  Presbytery  should  have  a  large  part  to  play 
in  seeing  that  these  schools  are  efficient.  Through  their  influence  with 
school  boards  and  city  and  town  politics,  they  should  endeavor  to 
choose  men  and  women  to  represent  the  people  in  educational  matters 
who  realize  the  vast  influence  that  the  schools  and  their  general 
efficiency  have  in  the  community. 

TOTAL  ILLITERATE 

TEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  AND  OVER 


County 


Bedford    .  . 

Blair    

Centre   .  .  .  . 
Clearfield  .. 
Huntingdon 
Juniata  .  .  . 
Mifflin 


Total 
Populat'n 


39,468 
85,099 
42.894 
80,614 
34,650 
16.054 
23,160 


Native 

Native 

Aggreg'e 

White 

White 

Illiterate 

Native 

Foreign 

Parents 

Parents 

2,154 

1,729 

84 

3,156 

1,747 

196 

1,478 

1,082 

82 

4,214 

1,021 

303 

1,288 

831 

60 

481 

431 

15 

580 

518 

18 

Foreign 
White 


1 


225 
,150 
244 
,869 
347 
23 
19 


27 


VITAL  FORCES 

Physicians  in  the  Presbytery  report  that  the  death  rate  among  for- 
eigners is  very  high,  especially  among  children.  While  this,  in  a 
measure,  is  offset  by  an  exceedingly  high  birth  rate  among  these  alien 
people,  still  the  child  of  the  foreigners  here  has  as  much  right  to 
live  as  has  an  other  child. 

Ignorance  on  the  part  of  mothers  concerning  the  care  of  young 
children,  improper  and  poorly  cooked  foods,  superstitious  beliefs  and 
practices  during  times  of  sickness  are  often  the  cause  of  this  high 
rate  of  mortality. 

When  young  girls  and  children  have  to  carry  heavy  pails  of  water, 
five  or  six  blocks,  for  the  usages  in  the  household ;  when  young  boys 
leave  school  to  work  in  mines  when  they  are  10,  11,  or  12  years  old; 
when  these  same  boys  are  found  coming  home  at  the  end  of  the  shift, 
smoking  a  corn-cob  pipe  or  chewing  tobacco — when  a  few  facts  like 
these  are  considered,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  in  a  few  years 
the  death  rate  of  the  children  of  these  boys  and  girls  will  be  high. 
A  miner  in  Bedford  County  asked  if  it  seemed  queer  that  there  was 
a  lot  of  sickness  when  one  stopped  to  think  about  the  cold  mornings 
when  it  was  necessary  to  shovel  the  snow  out  of  the  bedrooms  that 
had  drifted  in  through  the  cracks  of  some  of  the  company-houses. 

The  wife  of  a  miner  asked  if  it  was  any  wonder  that  the  people 
of  her  town  were  sick  when  their  only  water  supply  was  the  creek  that 
ran  through  the  middle  of  the  town. 

To  be  sure,  the  question  has  two  sides.  The  superintendent  of  a 
large  coal  mine  said  that  it  was  somewhat  discouraging  to  fix  up 
the  houses  in  his  town,  which  he  was  trying  to  do,  and  then  during 
some  Saturday  night  carousal  to  have  a  gang  of  Italians  or  Slavish 
miners  shoot  out  all  the  windows  and  break  up  the  place  in  general. 
This  was  in  a  "dry"  town. 

Without  doubt,  this  question  of  the  vital  forces  in  the  foreign 
communities  throughout  the  Presbytery  is  the  most  important  one 
of  the  entire  social  problem;  it  is  the  end,  really,  of  all  the  other 
forces  at  work,  either  for  the  upbuilding  or  the  degradation  of  the 
foreigner  and  his  life  in  this  section  of  Pennsylvania.  This  is  the 
measurable  result  of  the  housing  conditions :  of  the  educational  sys- 
tem and  to  what  extent  it  has  been  made  to  fit  the  needs  of  the 
community,  of  the  social  life  of  the  people,  their  recreation,  their 
amusements,  their  crimes,  of  their  economic  life  and  of  their  religious 
life. 

28 


STANDARD  OF  LIVING 

There  is  not  space  in  this  report  to  enter  into  a  careful  analysis  of 
the  quality  and  amount  of  foods  used  in  the  foreign  families  in  this 
vicinity.  One  has  only  to  make  a  few  visits  to  typical  homes  to  see 
that  life  is  maintained  on  the  simplest  of  foods.  There  is  no  money 
for  luxuries  nor  unessentials  in  these  households.  Food  in  quantities 
sufficient  to  maintain  the  strength  necessary  for  the  hard  labor  they 
have  to  perform  is  the  main  point  at  issue. 

In  New  York  State  a  careful  study  of  standards  of  living  was 
made  recently  and  as  a  result  a  statement  was  issued  that  no  average 
family  of  five  members  could  maintain  a  decent  standard  of  living 
under  $700  a  year.  While  the  matter  of  rent  is  a  less  serious  prob- 
lem here  than  in  New  York,  as  far  as  actual  expenditure  goes,  the 
question  of  food  is  a  more  serious  one  and  the  majority  of  families 
live  on  incomes  far  below  the  sum  mentioned. 

Plenty  of  instances  are  given  throughout  the  Presbytery  where 
families  live  on  $5,  $6,  $8,  or  $10  a  week.  This  is  true  not  in  the 
rural  communities  where  a  man  may  eke  out  a  living  for  his  family 
with  a  small  garden,  or  where  he  owns  land  producing  for  him  part 
of  the  family  living,  but  in  the  mining  sections  where  everything  in 
the  way  of  food  and  clothing  is  paid  for  from  the  weekly  envelope 
or  envelopes  of  the  wage-earning  members  of  the  family. 

The  population  of  the  Presbytery  is  not  now  nor  will  it  soon  become 
homogeneous.  The  invaders  and  the  invaded  are  separate,  not  only 
geographically,  but  by  standards  and  customs  that  do  not  tend  toward 
unity.  The  invaders  are  scattered  in  small  concentrated  groups 
throughout  the  different  counties,  which  fact  tends  to  make  them 
hold  to  their  own  ideals  of  life  and  civic,  religious  and  social  stand- 
ards. The  character  of  the  population  of  the  mining  towns  and  camps 
has  changed  as  the  general  population  of  the  country  has  changed. 
The  Irish  and  German  immigration  into  this  country  has  been  dis- 
placed by  the  Italian,  Hungarian,  Russian  and  the  character  of  the 
mine  has  also  changed.  The  old  immigrants  who  are  left  in  the 
camps  and  small  mining  settlements  are  not  holding  to  the  standards 
of  living  maintained  thirty  years  ago.  The  more  ambitious  and  thrifty 
have  emigrated  or  become  leaders  while  the  lazy  or  incompetent  have 
remained,  mixing  with  the  newer  immigration  which  is  mentally  in- 
ferior. This  tends  to  lower  the  entire  atmosphere  of  the  sections 
where  this  state  exists. 

The  doctor  in  a  mining  camp  reported  that  he  had  worked  in  the 

29 


slums  and  dark  places  of  our  big  cities,  that  he  had  had  years  of 
experience  in  conditions  good  and  bad,  but  that  he  never  found  condi- 
tions worse  than  in  the  little  mining  town  where  he  now  worked. 
He  related  a  typical  case  of  a  Slavish  family  which  had  sent  for  him 
one  night.  He  arrived  at  the  house,  opened  the  front  door  and  found 
twelve  people  sleeping  in  the  front  room  with  the  windows  tightly 
shut — the  father  and  mother  and  the  children,  along  with  several 
boarders.  One  of  the  boys  of  the  family  was  upstairs  in  the  loft, 
sick  with  typhoid.  The  windows  of  the  room  had  not  been  opened 
for  weeks  and  the  boy  had  not  had  a  bath  since  the  fever  overtook 
him.  On  the  table  in  the  same  room,  the  oldest  daughter,  a  girl  of 
nineteen,  was  laid  out,  having  died  a  day  or  so  before  of  the  fever. 
It  was  necessary  for  the  doctor  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  floor  and  lower 
her  with  the  reins  from  his  harness  to  the  room  below  before  he  could 
attend  to  the  sick  lad  above.    He  said  that  the  girl  need  not  have  died. 

It  is  in  such  families  as  these  that  Huntingdon  Presbytery  should 
be  more  interested. 

In  the  case  of  single  men  or  men  whose  families  are  in  Europe  and 
whose  sole  object  in  coming  to  America  is  to  save  every  possible  cent 
to  send  home,  as  many  as  eight  or  ten,  or  more,  are  to  be  found 
occupying  one  room.  Many  beds  are  occupied  the  entire  twenty- 
four  hours.  When  the  day  shift  turns  out  of  their  beds,  the  night 
shift  turns  into  them. 

A  boarding  house  boss  renting  the  four  or  five  rooms  available 
either  in  the  single  or  the  half  of  the  double  house  finds  accommoda- 
tions for  from  18  to  35  men,  but  they  must  live  under  conditions 
unfavorable  to  the  existence  of  human  beings.  In  maintaining  the 
standard  of  living,  the  native  and  Irish  families  find  that  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  increase  as  does  the  income,  while  in  foreign  families, 
especially  Italian,  Austrian  and  Russian,  the  tendency  is  to  save  even 
though  a  very  low  standard  of  living  is  maintained.  Most  of  the 
lodgers  and  boarders  are  to  be  found  among  this  latter  class,  as  are 
also  the  workers  among  the  children.  The  large  majority  of  them, 
however,  live  on  the  barest  margin,  and  in  case  of  sickness  or  enforced 
idleness  at  once  become  a  charge  either  upon  friends  and  relatives  or 
upon  the  public. 

In  the  small  settlements  near  Williamsburg,  the  foreigners  are 
much  isolated.  Living  in  the  prevailing  dismal,  cheerless  company- 
houses  in  these  little  unattractive,  unsanitary  communities,  the  people 
are  establishing  in  America  a  rural  peasant  class,  that  will  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  socialize  in  years  to  come.     At  Williamsburg,  an 

30 


Italian  Bank  conducts  business  with  the  Italians  and  other  foreigners, 
to  some  extent,  in  the  vicinity.  They  state  that  a  good  business  is 
carried  on,  as  they  also  act  as  steamship  agents  and  add  that  the 
foreigners  in  that  section  of  the  county  have  evidently  come  to  stay. 
Many  of  the  married  men  are  sending  for  their  families,  or  young 
fellows  are  sending  back  to  the  old  country  for  wives  in  order  to  set 
up  a  home  in  this  new  country.  How  attractive  a  home  this  will  be, 
or  how  healthful  its  surroundings,  how  good  the  water  supply,  how 
good  and  efficient  the  agencies  for  the  prevention  of  crime,  how  good 
the  educational  advantages,  how  great  his  religious  privileges,  depend 
upon  the  people  of  Huntingdon  Presbytery. 


HOUSING 

From  one  end  of  the  Presbytery  to  the  other,  the  housing  conditions 
among  the  foreigners  are  nearly  identical. 

They  are  company-houses,  these  homes  of  our  foreign  population, 
as  well  as  the  homes  of  many  of  the  American  miners.  Rows  upon 
rows  of  cheaply  built,  small  single  or  double  houses,  built  on  piles, 
with  the  wind  sweeping  under  them,  they  straggle  up  and  down  the 
cheerless  hillsides  near  the  mines  or  furnaces.  The  stumps  of  trees 
that  have  long  since  been  sacrificed  to  commercial  ends  are  the  only 
decoration  of  the  streets  and  yards  in  most  places.  In  one  of  these 
cheap,  single,  unpainted,  forlorn  looking  houses,  or  in  the  three  or 
four  rooms  constituting  one-half  of  the  double  house,  also  unpainted 
and  dismal,  we  expect  the  newly  arrived  foreigner  to  conform  to 
things  and  ideals  American,  to  be  a  useful,  intelligent  citizen  of  the  big 
"Commonwealth" — that  great  commonwealth  that  we  see  so  largely 
written  over  the  State  covering  the  many  features  of  the  Government. 
It  is  ever  "for  the  good  of  our  great  commonwealth"  that  this  law 
is  passed  or  that  law  is  turned  down.  It  is  always  for  the  good  of  the 
great  commonwealth  that  this  franchise  is  granted  or  refused,  that 
this  night  industry  for  children,  this  permission  given  to  women  to 
work  long  hours  at  hard  labor  is  allowed ;  but  perhaps  these  foreign- 
ers do  not  belong  to  this  great  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania.  Per- 
haps the  fact  that  many  thousands  of  foreign  coal  miners  do  not 
pay  taxes  because  they  are  not  allowed  to  own  property,  perhaps 
owing  to  the  fact  that  many  of  these  coal  diggers  have  lived  in  this 
country,  fifteen,  twenty,  thirty  years,  without  becoming  citizens, simply 
because  no  one  ever  took  the  trouble  to  tell  them  how  to  go  about  it ; 

31 


perhaps  because  realizing  that,  somewhere  high  up,  some  place  where 
influence  and  money  and  brains  counted,  something  was  radically 
wrong  or  conditions  would  not  be  what  they  are,  and  in  some  cases 
because  others  object  to  them  because  they  are  trying  to  work  out 
some  plan  to  better  their  condition,  either  by  better  pay  or  shorter 
hours  or  by  a  square  deal — perhaps  because  of  these  things,  these 
foreigners  are  not  a  part  of  the  great  commonwealth  after  all. 

In  some  sections  no  water  is  provided  for  the  use  of  the  occupants 
of  the  houses,  not  even  a  pump  in  the  yard.  Occupants  of  whole  rows 
of  houses  find  it  necessary  to  carry  water  seven  or  eight  hundred  feet 
or  more  for  use  in  the  house.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  tired  miners 
sometimes  turn  in  at  night  with  some  of  the  grime  of  the  mines 
still  on  them  ?  In  the  Winter,  it  was  stated  that  snow  could  be  melted 
for  the  water  to  be  used  in  washing,  etc.,  but  the  drinking  water  must 
be  carried.    To  the  women  and  girls  is  left  this  task. 

For  these  places  of  abode,  the  people  pay  from  $5  to  $8  per  month, 
and  in  many  places  it  is  obligatory  that  they  occupy  company-houses. 
Not  only  do  companies  build  the  houses  as  unattractive,  seemingly, 
as  possible,  but  streets  and  alleys  are  arranged  in  towns  often  times  in 
the  worst  way.  Blocks  are  built  one  house  deep ;  the  front  door  and 
front  yards  of  one  facing  the  back  yards  and  objectionable  buildings 
of  the  block  in  front  of  it. 

Coal  bins  are  placed  in  many  instances  at  one  side  of  the  front  gate 
in  order  that  delivery  from  the  mines  may  be  made  as  easy  as  possible. 

Civic  pride  is  entirely  unthought  of  here  among  the  foreigner  of 
the  Presbytery.  The  houses  do  not  belong  to  them — there  is  no  in- 
centive for  having  attractive  yards  and  clean  streets  even  though 
there  were  time  for  such  things  and  a  knowledge  of  ways  and  means 
of  producing  such  results. 

Housing  reform  agencies  are  not  coming  into  a  community  having 
such  a  comparatively  small  problem  as  Huntingdon  Presbytery  pre- 
sents. No  other  agency  is  especially  interested  in  this  phase  of  the 
social  life  of  the  foreigner.  There  is  no  machinery  by  which  any 
reform  may  be  started  other  than  the  Church.  Here  again  she  has 
the  opportunity  to  show  her  efficiency  in  a  very  live,  tangible  form. 


ECONOMIC  LIFE 

It  was  difificult  to  obtain  reliable  facts  regarding  the  political  sym- 
pathies of  the  foreigners  in  the  Presbytery.     A  general  feeling  of 

32 


unrest,  however,  is  felt  in  most  places.  Something  seems  to  be  wrong 
somewhere  with  the  general  order  of  affairs.  It  does  not  seem  natural 
to  a  miner  that  he  should  have  to  work  day  in  and  day  out,  month 
in  and  month  out,  and  year  in  and  year  out,  under  conditions  not  only 
unlovely  and  depressing,  unsanitary  and  unhealthful,  but  oftentimes 
dangerous  and  unsafe.  When  he  sees  nothing  before  him  for  himself 
or  for  his  children,  no  economic  security  of  any  kind  for  a  future 
day;  no  special  joy  in  living  for  the  present  moment,  is  it  any  wonder 
that,  when  the  labor  agitator  comes  around  or  the  political  agitator, 
or  in  fact  any  one  enough  interested  in  them  to  inquire  into  their 
economic  or  social  well-being,  he  stops  to  listen  and  to  wonder 
whether  this  is  really  the  way  out  of  the  difficulty?  When  the  mines 
are  running  full  time,  the  miner  makes  good  wages — sometimes  as 
high  as  $4  or  $4.50  per  day.  Many  of  the  mines  are  apt  to  be  closed 
down,  however,  for  several  months  in  the  year,  or  work  only  certain 
days  during  the  week,  thus  making  the  average  weekly  wage  low. 

In  some  sections  of  the  soft  coal  region  the  farmer  or  the  farmer's 
boys  come  to  the  mines  to  work  during  the  Winter.  They  care 
nothing  for  the  Union  and  work  for  smaller  wages  than  the  regular 
skilled  miner.  They  can  afford  to  do  so  owing  to  the  fact  that  their 
entire  living  is  not  obtained  from  the  mine.  Toward  this  class  of 
labor  the  regular  miners  feel  very  bitter.  Among  the  coal  miners,  the 
hours  of  labor  have  been  cut  to  eight  hours  a  day.  In  many  places, 
the  day  in  the  mines  begins  at  7  A.  M.,  and  by  taking  half  an  hour 
for  lunch,  the  men  are  able  to  get  away  at  3.30  They  are  through 
work  for  the  day  and  can  go  home,  but  oftentimes  the  home  oft'ers 
no  better  attractions  than  those  found  in  the  mine.  The  tired  wife 
and  mother,  taking  care  of  the  usual  large  family,  is  often  ignorant 
of  the  most  simple  methods  of  housekeeping  and  so  has  little  time 
and  less  strength  to  make  the  shack  attractive  for  the  men  and  boys. 
Work  is  hard  enough  at  best,  but  amid  the  unpleasant  surroundings 
of  a  mining  town,  as  one  finds  it  in  certain  sections  of  the  Presbytery, 
the  task  of  keeping  clothes  mended,  of  cooking  meals  and  keeping 
things  as  clean  as  possible,  is  doubly  hard. 

With  the  inevitable  life  following  marriage  to  a  miner,  it  is  little 
wonder  that  so  many  of  the  American  girls  choose  to  go  to  the  city 
to  work  in  department  stores  and  restaurants,  rather  than  stay  in  the 
mining  camp  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  women  they  have  seen 
all  their  lives.  It  is  different  with  the  girls  in  foreign  families.  To 
them,  marriage  seems  to  be  an  accepted  instit?ution.  They  marry 
young  and  as  a   rule  have  large   families.     To  such  as  these,  the 

33 


Church  must  come  with  whatever  Christian  cheer  and  helpfuhiess  it 
can,  to  teach  and  advise,  to  instruct  and  counsel,  to  extend  the  helping 
hand  and  to  act  as  the  good  neighbor. 

Among  the  Italians,  who,  as  a  class,  are  seldom  to  be  found  work- 
ing underground,  the  tendency  is  to  save  money  in  order  that  they 
may  some  day  own  property. 

In  Altoona,  where  the  largest  number  of  Italians  are  to  be  found, 
the  housing  conditions  in  the  foreign  section  are  similar  to  those 
elsewhere.  The  Italian  population  is  stretched  along  the  street  par- 
allel to  the  railroad  tracks.  Though  they  live  in  the  smoke  and  dirt 
of  the  locality,  in  buildings  old  and  black  and  cheerless,  under  condi- 
tions crowded  and  unsanitary,  yet  comparatively  few  cases  of  sickness 
are  reported  among  them,  and  withal,  they  manage  to  save. 

Several  large  wholesale  business  houses  have  been  started  by  the 
Italians,  and  not  a  few  have  branched  out  into  mercantile  trades. 
Many  of  them  own  property  and  have  come  to  America  to  stay.  They 
are  never  idle  when  there  is  work  to  be  had. 

About  politics,  the  foreigner  in  whom  we  are  especially  interested 
cares  little  or  nothing.  As  has  already  been  stated,  he  feels  that 
somewhere  there  must  be  something  wrong  or  he  and  his  family 
would  not  have  to  slave  out  a  colorless  existence.  Few  realize  that 
they  can  become  a  part  of  that  government  that  causes,  to  a  certain 
extent,  their  conditions.  It  is  something  strange — this  having  a  voice 
in  affairs — and  few  of  them  regard  this  privilege  highly.  Many  are 
anxious  to  become  citizens  as  soon  as  possible,  but  whether  it  is  the 
keen  desire  to  keep  abreast  of  their  children,  or  whether  to  better 
themselves,  financially,  is  a  question. 

That  the  rate  of  accidents  in  mines  in  America  is  higher  than  in 
any  other  civilized  country  is  a  well  known  fact.  In  the  mines  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  men  in  the  coal  banks  work  where  there  is  a  risk 
to  life  and  limb.  Little  justice  is  shown  to  the  injured  foreigner  or  to 
the  family  of  a  coal  digger  killed  in  the  mines.  The  employer  feels 
no  obligation  to  the  family  of  a  man  killed,  if  that  family  happens  to 
be  in  Italy  or  Austria  or  if  they  are  in  this  country  and  cannot  speak 
the  language  and  do  not  know  the  American  customs. 

For  minor  accidents  and  injuries,  the  foreign  coal  digger  has  no 
time  to  put  through  the  courts.  He  is  only  interested  in  curing  him- 
self as  quickly  as  possible  in  order  that  he  may  get  back  to  the  coal 
bank  to  dig  out  a  living  for  his  family  and  himself. 

A  one-eyed  miner  at  a  miner's  boarding  house  said,  one  evening, 
while  talking  to  the  investigator :  "Well,  you  see,  we  were  working 

34 


on  the  bank  together,  the  boy  and  me,  and  I  had  put  down  a  charge 
of  dynamite  that  didn't  look  hke  it  was  going  off.  So  I  went  up  to 
take  a  look  and  off  she  went.  The  boy  wasn't  hurt  a  bit.  They 
carried  me  out  and  put  me  on  the  train  and  took  me  thirty  miles  up 
the  line  to  a  hospital  and  took  this  eye  out.  Sure  my  face  is  all 
black  from  the  powder,  but  gee !  I  got  one  eye  left,  ain't  I  ?  and  I 
was  back  diggin'  coal  in  the  bank  again  in  17  days,  just  17  days  from 
the  day  the  thing  blew  off  in  my  face  to  the  day  I  went  back  to 
work  again." 

Lack  of  a  knowledge  of  the  English  language  is  often  the  cause 
of  industrial  accidents  in  the  mines.  An  order  given  by  a  mine  boss 
which,  if  not  obeyed,  might  mean  serious  injury  or  death,  is  often 
not  understood  by  the  foreigner,  and  in  his  excitement  he  is  very  apt 
to  do  the  wrong  thing  resulting  in  injury  to  himself  and  others. 

Night  classes  in  English,  teaching  a  good  working  vocabulary  to 
the  foreigners  in  the  Presbytery,  where  at  all  possible,  would  be  of 
great  value.  These  classes  would  need  to  be  as  interesting  as  possible 
and  located  directly  in  the  midst  of  the  men  who  were  to  benefit  by 
them.  Men  who  have  worked  eight  or  ten  hours  a  day  in  a  coal 
bank  or  on  the  streets,  or  the  canal,  are  too  tired  to  walk  far  to  attend 
evening  classes,  especially  if  the  classes  are  conducted  by  inexperi- 
enced teachers  who  do  not  understand  or  appreciate  the  special  prob- 
lems which  confront  the  foreigner  and  his  life  in  a  new  country. 

The  machinery  ought  to  be  set  going,  to  bring  about  the  establish- 
ment of  such  schools.  Interested  people  should  see  that  this  work 
was  either  taken  up  by  the  school  departments  of  the  dift'erent  coun- 
ties or  should  interest  the  companies  employing  large  numbers  of 
men  in  establishing  such  centers.  Churches  could  conduct  classes  of 
this  kind  and  solicit  the  voluntary  help  of  the  best  people  in  the 
community  in  such  an  enterprise. 


RECREATION 

The  foreigners  of  Huntingdon  Presbytery  have  little  time  and  less 
money  to  spend  on  amusements.  To  be  sure,  the  moving-picture 
shows  flourish  in  the  cities  and  the  small  towns,  where  any  consider- 
able number  of  foreigners  are  found,  and  the  drinking  of  great  quanti- 
ties of  beer  and  general  carousing- — if  these  may  be  classed  under 
amusements — are   indulged  in  to  a  great  degree.     Everywhere  the 

35 


mine  boss,  or  the  quarry  superintendent,  never  failed  to  tell  of  the 
great  amount  of  drinking  carried  on  by  the  men  between  Saturday 
night  and  Monday  morning.  "There  is  nothing  else  for  them  to 
do,"  said  the  superintendent  of  one  mine. 

In  the  smaller  towns  throughout  the  Presbytery  many  of  the  pic- 
ture-shows that  were  flourishing  a  year  or  so  ago  have  closed,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  people  who  were  formerly  attracted  by  this  class 
of  amusement  do  not  have  the  nickels  or  dimes  to  spend  in  this  way. 
In  the  larger  cities  and  towns,  the  foreign  element  attend  these 
shows,  and  in  Altoona,  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  reported  that 
they  were  patronized  by  the  school  children  after  closing  of  school  in 
the  afternoon.  So  bad  has  this  practice  become  that  the  ministers 
in  Altoona  have  taken  up  the  matter  and  have  asked  the  parents  to 
forbid  their  children  from  attending. 

In  all  work  for  foreigners,  this  phase  of  the  work  must  by  no  means 
be  overlooked. 

These  people  look  to  the  Church,  not  only  as  the  legitimate  source 
of  their  amusements,  but  it  is  to  her  they  turn  in  time  of  financial 
need.  During  the  recent  business  depression  many  of  the  churches 
in  this  section  formed  themselves  into  Charity  Organization  Societies 
to  render  aid  to  the  unemployed. 

It  is  to  the  foreigner  on  the  margin  of  things  that  the  Church 
appeals.  In  time  of  sickness,  he  turns  to  the  Church ;  when  he  is  out 
of  a  job;  when  there  is  trouble  in  the  family;  when  the  older  daugh- 
ter runs  away  from  home  or  the  boy  is  going  to  the  bad ;  it  is  at 
these  times  that  he  must  find  in  the  Church  that  religious  and  social 
and  even  economic  help  that  at  that  moment  he  is  needing. 

In  these  towns,  that  present  an  appearance  far  from  sunny  or 
sanitary,  far  from  cheerful  or  bright,  the  people  are  concerned 
directly  with  the  getting  of  bread  and  not  with  lovely  sur- 
roundings and  pleasant  homes  and  fine  views  out  over  the 
beautiful  hills  upon  which  they  live.  Still,  they  have  some  leisure 
time,  and  it  is  this  time  that  ought  to  be  claimed  by  the  pastor,  or 
the  social  worker,  or  the  layman  who  is  interested  in  the  foreigner 
and  his  problem.  When  his  leisure  time  is  used  in  a  right  way, 
when  a  man  or  woman  has  time  to  think  about  his  surroundings, 
and  when  he  has  the  proper  suggestions,  a  change  will  naturally 
follow  and  not  only  will  the  spare  time  be  used  to  better  advantage 
but  the  living  and  working  conditions  will  be  better  and  more  sanitary 
and  more  hopeful  and  liveable.  Amusement  in  some  form  the  for- 
eigner is  going  to  have.     Whether  it  be  the  moving-picture  show,  or 

36 


the  cheap  theatre^  the  saloon  or  the  dance  hall,  it  often  makes  little 
difference  to  him.  The  Church  here  has  a  splendid  opportunity  to 
emphasize  the  play  spirit  about  which  much  has  been  said  and  written 
by  close  students  of  the  country  church  question. 

Dr.  Luther  Gulick,  in  speaking  of  recreation,  says :  "We  have 
Young  People's  Societies  and  a  variety  of  places  which  are  good  and 
wholesome  which  develop  a  wholesome  religious  life  in  young  people. 
We  have  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  and  Brotherhoods  and 
Sisterhoods.  We  have  extended  our  genius  for  organization  into 
religious  institutions  and  we  have  left  recreation  and  social  life  as 
absolutely  unorganized  as  the  others  are  organized.  During  my 
experience  educational  bodies,  medical  bodies,  and  almost  every  other 
body  has  taken  more  interest  in  public  recreation  than  have  the 
churches." 

People  have  to  learn  how  to  play.  Even  boys  do  not  play  baseball 
spontaneously;  they  have  to  learn  how. 

Many  think  that  in  small  towns  and  villages  that  young  people  can 
always  find  plenty  to  do  by  way  of  amusement.  This  is  not  true,  how- 
ever. There  is  absolutely  no  leadership  in  most  of  the  small  towns 
and  village  communities  of  the  leisure  time  of  the  people. 

Men  and  women,  as  well  as  boys  and  girls,  in  this  community  have 
their  business  hours,  their  working  time,  planned  for  them.  The 
hours  are  regular  and  the  duties  fixed,  but  it  is  the  leisure  time  that 
the  churches  of  the  Presbytery  should  claim.  There  seems  to  be  no 
other  one  agency  able  to  provide  men  and  women  who  can  make 
suggestions  for  and  supervise  these  spare  hours  of  the  people.  If 
they  can  furnish  interesting,  healthful  things  to  do,  they  will  be  doing 
a  great  service.  While  the  attitude  of  the  Church  ought  to  be  a  con- 
structive one  rather  than  otherwise,  still  much  can  be  done  in  the 
way  of  corrective  work  in  many  of  the  towns,  which  has  almost 
direct  bearing  on  this  creative  work.  Towns  containing  large  num- 
bers of  young  men  and  young  women  whose  wholesome  desire  is  to 
meet  one  another  evenings  ought  to  see  that  the  streets  are  at  least 
lit  up.  Many  towns  are  in  darkness  now.  If  no  other  agency  is 
willing  or  able  to  see  that  the  proper  authorities  install  street  lights 
of  some  sort,  why  should  not  this  be  a  good  work  for  the  Church  to 
undertake  ? 

There  are  many  other  phases  of  town  evils,  such  as  unattractive 
yards  and  streets,  dirty  alleys  and  vacant  lots,  that  the  Church  must 
either  remedy  or  be  content  to  see  left  alone.  Some  of  the  village 
communities  are  very  old  and  these  reforms  have  not  taken  place  yet, 


nor  is  there  immediate  prospect  that  they  will.  Politics  has  had  an 
unsuccessful  try  at  it  for  a  long  time.  Let  the  Church  step  in  now 
and  see  what  she  can  accomplish. 

In  Lewistown,  we  find  some  of  the  problems  of  a  large  city,  al- 
though not  the  foreign  problem.  Already  the  question  of  congestion 
has  come  up,  as  the  town,  though  small,  is  growing  rapidly  and  the 
far-sighted  social  workers  have  already  put  on  foot  the  movement 
of  converting  the  old  graveyard  occupying  the  center  of  the  town  into 
a  play-ground.  The  beautifying  of  the  city  has  also  been  taken  up 
by  a  Committee  on  Civic  Betterment. 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

No  matter  what  race,  color  or  creed,  man  is  everywhere  a  social 
being,  and  a  careful  study  of  the  leisure  time  in  connection  with  his 
social  life  is  most  essential  to  the  carrying  on,  by  the  Presbytery,  of 
any  religious  or  social  work. 

The  store,  whether  the  company-store  or  the  town-store,  is  the 
usual  center  of  association.  In  cases  of  large  numbers  of  unmarried 
foreigners  in  the  same  community,  the  boarding  house  is  often  the 
social  center,  or  on  Saturday  night,  if  the  town  happens  to  be  a 
"dry"  town,  after  the  beer  train  comes  in,  crowds  of  men  go  to  the 
woods,  taking  the  kegs  of  beer  with  them  to  spend  the  night  and 
Sunday  around  a  fire  in  social  communion. 

While  the  investigation  was  going  on  in  the  Presbytery,  just  before 
Christmas,  the  following  remarks  were  heard.  It  was  part  of  a  con- 
versation carried  on  by  some  young  fellows  who  had  come  into  town 
from  the  country  near  Huntingdon :  "Well,"  said  one  of  them,  "I've 
been  down  to  Pittsburg  and  when  I  was  down  there  I  saw  Jeffries 
and  two  other  prize  fighters."  Greatest  interest  was  immediately 
shown  by  those  who  had  heretofore  been  eating  their  dinners  in  stony 
silence.  "Well,  now,"  said  one,  "indeed  that  sure  would  have  been  a 
great  pleasure  to  have  seen  one  of  them  fellows  and  actually  talked 
to  him." 

Several  young  men  in  this  town  stated  that  there  seemed  to  be  no 
special  interest  for  doing  anything  for  them  in  the  town. 

There  are  young  men  in  this  town,  as  in  other  towns  throughout 
the  Presbytery,  who  are  left  to  organize  their  own  clubs  or  societies 
if  they  have  any  at  all.  This  leaving  of  a  serious  and  difficult  task 
alone  is  not  to  be  by  any  means  the  solution  of  that  problem. 

38 


ttrnwcMH  rmmfffy 

-  miiai  nmtimnmmm 


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itO  -/oFOFElCrIi 


mm 


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BtOFcm    i--':7iLti  'r-i.nmt.fj .  ^.„,. ^ 


J51  B  ^p 
Muneen   of  6dLoofi6   //y  ebch  coonry 


ij 


In  March  of  this  year,  four  boys,  ranging  from  18  to  21  years  of 
age,  in  Huntingdon  spent  an  evening  in  certain  saloons  drinking. 
They  were  heard  to  say  that  they  would  burn  down  the  town  that 
night.  They  were  in  a  high  way  to  accomplish  this,  for  before  they 
had  finished  with  their  night's  work,  property  valued  at  over  $150,000 
had  been  destroyed.  The  M.  E.  Church,  costing  over  $40,000,  was 
burned  to  the  ground,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  damaged,  two 
planing  mills  and  seven  dwellings  were  also  burned.  A  loss  of  life 
was  reported  as  the  result  of  the  fire. 

An  investigation  was  started  at  once  to  ascertain  who  sold  liquor  to 
minors.  Report  came  back  that  the  boys  had  obtained  a  large  bottle 
of  whiskey  from  an  Italian  somewhere  and  that  they  had  carried  it 
around  with  them  the  entire  night  from  the  various  widely  separated 
points  where  they  started  the  fires.  These  were,  however,  undoubt- 
edly not  the  facts  in  the  case.  Beyond  a  doubt  the  liquor  was  obtained 
in  a  local  saloon.  If  arguments  for  a  "dry"  town  are  needed,  if 
proofs  that  a  well-conducted  social  work  is  wanted,  none  better  than 
the  history  of  this  fire  and  a  study  of  the  leisure  of  these  boys  will 
present  itself. 

In  one  county,  local  option  is  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants.  Hotels 
in  small  towns  flourish,  especially  in  the  county  seats,  and  many  hotel- 
keepers  state  that  they  cannot  make  their  houses  pay  unless  a  bar  is 
run  in  connection  with  them.  In  a  specific  case  in  this  county,  a 
large  clothing  store  and  the  leading  hotel  are  owned  by  the  same  man. 
While  he  owned  the  hotel,  the  man  would  not  vote  for  a  "dry"  county. 
As  soon  as  the  hotel  is  off  his  hands,  and  it  is  now  on  the  market, 
then  he  will  vote  for  a  "dry"  county,  for  he  states  that  he  can  sell 
more  goods,  more  clothes,  when  the  county  is  "dry"  than  when  it 


is  "wet. 


Although  Bedford  County  is  not  a  "dry"  county,  there  is  no  saloon 
in  Williamsburg  owing  to  the  active  part  taken  on  the  part  of  the 
pastors  of  the  town.  Before  the  town  went  "dry,"  on  days  when  the 
men  could  not  work  in  the  quarries  on  account  of  rain  many  would 
come  to  town  and  hang  out  in  and  about  the  saloons,  making  it  un- 
pleasant for  the  townspeople  to  walk  on  the  streets  near  the  saloons. 
This  gave  the  impression  that  all  foreigners  were  undesirable  and  a 
strong  feeling  of  dislike  has  grown  up  among  the  native  born  inhab- 
itants of  Williamsburg  and  vicinity  for  the  foreigner  and  his  children. 
Now  that  the  town  is  "dry,"  beer  is  shipped  in  by  the  carload  and 
distributed  to  the  different  quarries  and  settlements  up  and  down 
the  valley. 

39 


ETHICAL  LIFE 

The  mentality  among  the  foreign  population  of  the  community  is 
rather  high.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  the  off-scouring  of  Southern 
Europe  that  has  come  to  this  part  of  the  State,  but  a  solid,  keen- 
minded  people.  Superintendents  of  works  say  of  them  that  they  are 
a  good  lot  of  workers,  law-abiding  in  most  cases,  and  if  given  any 
possible  chance,  eager  to  seize  any  opportunity  to  advance  themselves 
and  their  children. 

The  Italian  population  is  held  in  much  less  favor  throughout  the 
Presbytery  than  is  the  Hungarian  and  Austrian  and  Slavish.  With 
the  exception  of  Altoona  and  Woodvale  and  Robertsdale,  there  are 
no  colonies  where  any  considerable  numbers  of  Italians  are  found, 
excepting  along  the  railroad,  and  these  are  very  mobile  and  transient. 
The  foreigners  are  ambitious  for  their  children  and  in  the  larger 
places,  like  Altoona,  Tyrone,  etc.,  in  many  cases,  their  children  are  in 
the  High  Schools. 

The  strongest  and  best  come  to  this  country,  as  it  is  the  strong 
who  emigrate  and  the  weak  who  stay  at  home. 

To  speak  of  the  ethical  life  of  the  foreigner  may,  in  this  section  of 
the  country  seem  to  be  somewhat  of  a  misnomer.  Of  culture,  of 
libraries,  and  art  galleries  and  museums  they  know  little  or  nothing. 
There  is  no  time  for  such  things  here  for  him  and  no  opportunity  for 
him  to  make  use  of  such  things  if  he  had  the  time.  In  our  large 
cities,  the  art  galleries  on  Sundays  and  holidays  are  well  patronized 
by  Italians  and  other  foreigners.  The  museums  are  frequented  by 
them,  the  public  lecture  centers  are  made  use  of.  The  East  Side 
in  New  York  City  has  its  Grand  Street;  Chicago  has  its  Halstead 
Street;  Boston,  Philadelphia,  San  Francisco  and  other  city  immigra- 
tion centers  all  have  their  attractive  streets,  where  crowds  are  found 
and  lights  and  music  and  cheer  and  good-fellowship.  In  the  mining 
camps  and  in  most  of  the  other  foreign  centers  throughout  the  Pres- 
bytery, none  of  this  life  is  found.  No  gay  streets  here,  no  libraries, 
no  reading  rooms  where  men  can  write  letters  and  study  and  think 
and  rest.  There  are  few  functions  where  even  good  manners  are 
required  in  these  towns. 

What  is  the  Church  going  to  do  in  the  way  of  bringing  to  these 
people  what  they  can  of  culture  and  a  knowledge  of  better  things, 
of  higher  ideals,  of  better  manners? 

40 


SOCIAL  W^ELFARE 

The  social  institutions  chiefly  prized  by  the  foreigners  in  this  Pres- 
bytery are  the  family  and  marriage;  or  at  least  this  would  be  the 
case  if  they  had  much  time  to  think  about  such  things.  The  State 
means  nothing  to  them ;  this  is  America  and  that  is  enough,  and  they 
are  interested  chiefly  in  getting  bread  and  butter  and  a  few  clothes 
and  shelter.  They  have  little  time  for  the  worship  of  the  Church 
as  such — they  care  nothing  for  the  legal  system  of  the  country,  or 
the  political  issues.  What  they  must  have  is  wages,  a  place  to  stay 
and  enough  to  eat.  Other  things  they  may  want  and  long  for — the 
family  life  as  they  knew  it  in  Russia  or  Austria  or  Hungary  or  Italy — 
but  they  must  live. 

They  are  strong  individualists.  The  well-being  of  the  whole  com- 
munity is  all  well  and  good,  "but  the  company  seems  to  have  that 
in  hand,"  says  the  miner.  "Me?  I  am  interested  in  my  family,  in 
myself." 

To  be  sure,  they  have  their  sick  benefits  and  lodges,  etc.,  and  when 
an  unfortunate  is  hurt  or  in  special  trouble,  funds  are  forthcoming 
from  the  pockets  of  his  countrymen.  But  it  is  a  clannish  feeling 
rather  than  a  civic  one. 

In  a  questionnaire  sent  to  members  of  the  Presbytery  by  the  Home 
Board's  investigator,  one  question  read :  "What  is  the  feeling  of 
the  American  toward  the  foreigner?" 

There  were  two  types  of  answers — one  coming  from  districts  where 
there  were  very  few  foreigners,  the  other  from  the  section  containing 
the  largest  number  of  foreigners.  In  the  former  localities  the  replies 
state  that  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  foreigner  is  not  a  special  prob- 
lem, the  feeling  toward  him  is  either  a  very  kindly  one  or  one  of 
indifference.  In  the  latter  case,  however,  the  reports  come  back  that 
toward  the  foreigner  is  a  strong  feeling  of  hostility  and  antagonism. 

A  most  interesting  study,  or  studies  might  be  made  of  such  groups 
as  are  found  in  Mifflin  and  Huntingdon  counties,  including  the 
Amish,  both  old  school  and  the  various  new  schools  which  have  been 
formed,  the  Dunkards,  the  Mennonites  and  others.  These  groups 
have  played  a  most  important  part  in  the  religious,  social,  economic 
and  political  life  of  the  valleys  where  they  have  large  holdings  of 
fine  farms  and  some  of  the  best  stock  in  the  entire  State,  but  the 
Presbytery  is  not  immediately  concerned  with  these  groups  at  present 
as  they  have  no  direct  bearing  on  the  present  work  of  the  Home 
Missions  in  the  Presbytery. 

41 


In  the  scheme  of  things,  as  now  found  in  the  foreign  sections,  there 
seems  to  be  no  special  end  for  which  society  exists.  These  people 
are  not  working  for  a  community  and  its  well-being.  They  are  not 
especially  interested  in  culture  or  personal  development,  either  mental 
or  physical.  Their  problem,  as  stated  before,  is  so  largely  an  eco- 
nomic one,  that  little  else  enters  into  the  life  of  the  man  in  the  coal 
bank.  The  wife  and  younger  children  at  home  are  trying  to  make,  in 
some  measure,  homelike,  the  shack  thrust  upon  them  in  lieu  of  a 
home.  The  boy  of  14  years  of  age,  or  even  younger  if  he  is  able 
to  avoid  the  Child  Labor  Law,  has  gone  into  the  mine  or  quarry  to 
help  swell  the  family  budget.  It  is  easy  to  avoid  the  Child  Labor 
Law  when  a  school  superintendent,  as  was  discovered  in  one  coal 
town,  signs  up  between  300  and  400  blank  application  certificates  of 
age  and  fitness  for  work  and  gives  them  to  the  employers  of  children. 
This,  however,  happened  outside  of  the  bounds  of  Huntingdon  Pres- 
bytery, but  in  a  nearby  county. 


CRIME 


Most  of  the  crimes  throughout  the  Presbytery  for  which  foreigners 
are  committed  are  such  minor  ones  as  drunkenness  and  fighting,  or 
disorderly  conduct.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  one  stops 
to  consider  the  quantities  of  liquor  sold  in  the  foreign  communities 
and  the  great  lack  of  any  counteracting  social  agencies  which  are 
to  be  found. 

An  attempt  was  made  in  Altoona  to  secure  figures  from  the  Police 
Department  regarding  what  percentage  of  the  whole  number  of 
arrests  was  foreign,  but  statistics  in  that  Department  are  not  kept  on 
that  subject.  The  Chief  of  Police  stated,  however,  that  little  trouble 
with  the  foreigners  of  Altoona  was  experienced. 

Eight  per  cent,  of  all  the  inmates  of  the  Pennsylvania  Reformatory 
at  Huntingdon  come  from  Huntingdon  Presbytery  and  a  study  was 
made  to  ascertain  whether  the  problem  of  juvenile  crime  lay  mostly 
with  foreign  born  boys  or  with  boys  born  in  the  United  States 
whose  parents  were  foreign  born. 

Parents  of  boys  committed .  58     %  Native  born ;  42     %  Foreign  born 
Boys  committed 86>^  %  Native  born ;  13>4  %  Foreign  born 

These  figures  show  that  the  problem  is  with  the  native  born  chil- 
dren of  foreign  born  parents. 

42 


mnmm  msdyrm 


-FEnnMmin  mommy- 

HUHTIM(WO^     F/f: 

Qi>OFTHE  d^y^  cofff  mft  m  mrmooM  m5Byrm. 

F/fJfErfTj  OF  Boyj  co/f/f/rrfff 


I       vjt  e    °/c 


ti  F)    T IV  El.      BO/fr^      I 


doys  corrrfirrED 


I  &(:,     '/i        o/a 


N  B-T  I  V  E^         a  O  /^    M 


The  following  table  will  show  that  in  most  cases  where  the  per- 
centage of  foreign  population  is  high,  the  number  of  saloons  is  large : 


Counties 

Foreign 
Population 

Per  Cent. 
Foreign 

Number  of 
Saloons 

Clearfield    

31,619 
16.753 
5,515 
2,448 
1,138 
1,082 
420 

39. 
20. 
13. 

7. 
9. 

4. 

2. 

85 

Blair   

87 

Centre    

35 

Bedford 

27 

Huntingdon 

Mifflin 

Tuniata   

9 

dry 
11 

The  home  life  is  so  different  in  this  country  from  that  in  Europe, 
the  parents  are  apt  to  be  away  so  many  hours  that  the  home  influence 
that  used  to  play  such  an  important  part  in  the  child  life  abroad  is 
lacking  under  the  newer  influences. 

No  better  opportunity  can  be  found  for  foreign  missionary  work 
than  among  the  children  of  these  foreigners  who  are  to  become  the 
citizens  of  to-morrow. 


43 


RECOMMENDATIONS 

Everybody  realizes  the  great  need  of  bringing  to  these  foreigners 
the  Gospel  of  Spiritual  Salvation,  but  many  have  overlooked  the 
fact  that  the  Church  not  only  may,  but  ought  to  interest  herself  in 
the  social  well-being  of  the  community  as  well  as  in  the  purely 
religious  side  of  life. 

The  recommendations  which  follow  are  the  result  of  a  careful 
study  of  experts  on  Church  and  Social  problems.  The  field  is  a 
large  one — the  work  to  be  done,  a  large  work,  but  the  spirit  of  this 
Presbytery  is  also  large,  and  it  is  hoped  that  when  the  recommenda- 
tions and  policies  are  accepted  and  put  into  practice  the  results  will 
also  be  large. 

I.  Specific 

1.  An  efficient  Presbyterial  Superintendent  is  needed. 

This  Superintendent  would  represent  the  Presbytery  in  the 
entire  field,  cooperating  with  the  committees  already  appointed 
and  any  new  committees  or  reconstruction  of  old  ones. 

2.  Committee  on  Foreign-Speaking  People. 

a.  The  members  of  this  present  Committee  are  so  located  as 
to  be  in  touch  with  each  other  but  not  with  the  foreigners  in 
this  Presbytery. 

b.  This  Committee  should  be  made  up  of  ministers  and  lay- 
men living  in  the  communities  in  which  the  foreigners  are 
living. 

c.  This  Committee  could  profitably  make  more  of  the  foreign 
work  in  the  Presbytery.  They  could  put  it  before  the  public 
by  presenting  definite  forms  of  service  along  definite  lines 
of  work. 

FIELDS   FOR    WORK 

Italian 

In  and  about  Robertsdale  there  is  a  splendid  opportunity  to  do  a 
Home  Mission  work  with  perhaps  Robertsdale  as  a  center.    There  is 

44 


no  social  agency  in  the  city  with  the  exception  of  the  M.  E.  Church; 
which  is  open  once  or  twice  a  month  for  preaching  and  every  Sunday 
for  S.  S.  and  E.  L.  services. 

Last  year,  the  Presbytery  thought  of  selHng  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Robertsdale,  which  has  not  been  used  as  a  church  for 
some  time.  A  new  superintendent  of  mines  was  about  to  go  to 
Robertsdale.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Somerville,  Jr.,  had  lived  in  Win- 
burne  and  taken  an  active  part  in  the  foreign  work  there.  Mr.  John 
Somerville,  Sr.,  was  then  on  the  Committee  for  Foreign-Speaking 
People  and  when  the  question  of  selling  the  Presbyterian  Church  at 
Robertsdale  came  up,  Mr.  Somerville  said  :  "John  is  going  to  Roberts- 
dale — give  him  a  year  there  and  then  if  you  want  to  sell  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  go  ahead." 

It  was  much  less  than  a  year  afterward  that  Robertsdale  was  in- 
vestigated by  the  Immigration  Department.  Robertsdale  had  always 
been  known  as  "the  Camp"'  at  the  office  of  headquarters.  It  is  now 
the  town  of  "Robertsdale."  Mr.  and  Airs.  John  Somerville's  in- 
fluence has  been  at  work.  Street  lights  have  been  put  up ;  Mrs. 
Somerville  has  a  sewing  class  for  girls  among  the  foreigners.  Speak- 
ing two  or  three  languages  and  having  the  social  spirit,  she  visits 
the  homes  of  the  people ;  she  is  the  "friendly  neighbor"  of  the  town. 
A  Presbyterian  Sunday  School  of  over  sixty  has  been  organized  and 
the  little  Presbyterian  Church  is  once  more  used  on  Sundays. 

There  is  a  distinct  need  here  of  even  more  social  work — a  reading 
room  might  be  opened  in  the  church  during  the  week  for  the  Italians 
and  Slavs  if  such  a  combination  were  possible. 

For  a  time  the  company  at  Union  Furnace  has  given  the  people 
the  use  of  a  room  for  church  purposes.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Sunday  School  has  occasionally  conducted  services  there.  The  peo- 
ple seem  interested  in  the  work  and  would  like  to  have  a  permanent 
work  established. 

The  store-keeper  at  Union  Furnace,  also  post-master  and  an  elder 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Tyrone,  has  put  tracts  in  the  post- 
ofifice  boxes  for  the  Italians  and  states  that  when  his  supply  was 
exhausted,  the  men  came  to  him  asking  for  more  letters  of  the  same 
kind,  that  they  liked  to  read  them  and  couldn't  he  get  more  for  them. 
He  also  states  that  the  Italian  girls  can  be  heard  during  the  day 
going  about  their  work  singing  snatches  of  Gospel  songs. 

It  is  just  such  men  as  this  man,  who  thoroughly  know  the  economic 
side  of  the  foreigner  and  his  life  in  every  phase,  and  who  are  inter- 
ested in  his  religious  and  social  well-being,  whom  we  wish  to  interest 

45 


in  the  Home  Mission  work  of  his  own  community.     This  also  could 
be  a  part  of  the  Italian  circuit. 

Slavs 

Winburne  needs  a  missionary  who  can  organize  work  in  several 
places,  viz.,  Winburne,  Munson,  Morrisdale  Mines,  Philipsburg,  Os- 
ceola, Peale,  etc.  This  man  should  speak  Austrian,  Slovak,  and 
Ruthenian  in  order  to  handle  the  different  divisions  of  Slavs  to  be 
found  in  this  locality. 

He  should  be  under  the  direct  supervision  of  that  part  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign-Speaking  People  nearest  his  work.  He  should 
report  to  them  and  expect  to  be  closely  supervised  by  them. 

No  Protestant  work  with  the  exception  of  the  Swedish  Church 
which  they  themselves  conduct,  is  being  carried  on  by  any  denomina- 
tion, for  the  foreigners  in  this  section.  Winburne  is  the  natural 
center  for  such  an  enterprise.  When  an  efficient  man  is  found,  the 
entire  field  in  this  immediate  vicinity  could  be  covered  by  him,  and 
with  a  carefully  worked  out  plan  of  visitation  and  preaching,  he 
ought  to  be  a  great  factor  for  religious  and  social  good  to  that 
entire  region. 

Roumanians 

In  Mt.  Union  there  are  about  500  Roumanians.  The  superinten- 
dent of  the  tannery,  where  most  of  the  Roumanians  work,  states  that 
there  is  a  splendid  opportunity  for  an  active,  aggressive  Protestant 
work  among  these  foreigners.  These  people  have  come  to  make 
America  their  home  and  when  given  the  right  opportunity  make 
most  desirable  citizens. 

This  might  be  made  part  of  a  circuit  for  work  among  Slavs.  Social 
activities  could  be  carried  on  by  the  local  people  of  Mt.  Union,  while 
the  preaching  services  could  be  conducted  by  a  pastor  whose  duty  it 
would  be  to  give  the  necessary  time  to  the  field. 

FEDERATION 

There  are  many  small  communities  of  75  or  100  people  throughout 
the  Presbytery  that  are  entirely  unreached  by  religious  influence,  and 
who  would  be  glad  of  a  chance  to  have  some  sort  of  a  service — a 
preaching  service,  a  Sunday  School,  a  prayer-meeting,  a  Christian 
Endeavor. 

If  each  county  could  be  gone  over  in  a  very  accurate  way  and  each 

46 


town  put  down  with  its  inhabitants;  if  in  such  places  as  just  men- 
tioned, some  interested  person  could  make  a  house-to-house  religious 
survey,  a  circuit  might  be  made  where  a  man  could  be  on  the  road 
most  of  the  time,  holding  a  prayer-meeting  in  one  place,  one  night  a 
Christian  Endeavor  meeting  in  the  next  town,  etc. 

There  is  nearly  always  a  school-house  in  every  town,  and  this 
or  the  home  of  some  interested  person  could  be  used  for  such  services. 

In  the  three  counties  of  Huntingdon,  Mifflin  and  Juniata,  especially, 
the  Presbyterians  are  moving  off  the  farms  into  town,  and  it  is  only 
by  such  a  careful  study  of  the  entire  field  as  a  whole  that  many  of 
these  churches  can  even  be  held.  A  Federation  of  Churches  in  the 
entire  Presbytery,  or  that  section  of  the  county  where  such  a  work 
is  possible,  should  be  most  desirable.  There  is  apt  to  be  much 
jealousy  and  over-lapping  of  work;  the  starting  of  similar  work  on 
the  same  field  and  the  subsequent  giving  it  up  by  one  or  both,  whereas, 
if  the  field  has  been  carefully  divided  up  and  scientifically  studied, 
greater  efificiency  would  have  resulted. 

GRANGE 

There  should  be  the  greatest  possible  cooperation  between  the 
Grange  and  the  Farmers'  Institute  and  the  ministers  of  each  county. 
The  Grange  has  a  place  in  the  life  of  some  communities  that  no  other 
agency  has.  It  not  only  deals  with  the  economic  life  of  the  farmer, 
but  with  his  social  life  as  well.  While  the  Farmers'  Institute  does 
not  continue  in  any  one  place  more  than  a  few  days,  at  the  longest, 
during  the  year,  still  this  splendid  opportunity  should  not  pass  with- 
out being  grasped  by  the  pastors  of  that  vicinity  where  the  meetings 
are  held  to  make  the  economic  life  of  the  farmer  and  his  every-day 
problems  of  special  concern  to  himself. 

SPECIAL  WORK  FOR  CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR  SOCIETIES 

A  young  Hungarian  at  Curwensville,  a  Protestant,  has  joined 
Rev.  Barber's  Church  and  brings  several  fellow-countrymen  to  the 
Christian  Endeavor  meetings.  He  conducts  services  for  the  Protest- 
ant Hungarians  in  the  community  and  is  an  active  worker.  He  has 
been  in  this  country  four  years  and  speaks  English  well.  He  is  a 
careful  student  and  says  he  would  like  to  enter  the  ministry.  At 
present,  he  is  a  shoemaker. 

We  would  suggest  that  the  Christian  Endeavor  Societies  in  the 
entire   Presbytery  support  him   in   school   for  three  or   four  years, 

47 


where  he  could  get  a  thorough  training,  spending  all  his  summers  in 
the  Huntingdon  Presbytery,  working  on  the  field.  It  would  not  only 
give  the  young  people  in  the  Presbytery  a  specific  interest  in  the  field, 
but  get  them  a  good  man  at  the  same  time. 

II.     General 

1.  The  policy  of  the  churches  should  be  directed  toward  the  causes 
of  the  churches'  decay.  These  causes  being  ascertained,  the  Church 
should  exert  herself  to  remedy  them,  because  the  decay  of  the  Church 
is  an  index  of  the  decay  and  degeneration  of  the  community.  For 
this  reason  the  Church  should  evangelize  and  Christianize  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  community.  Just  as  the  individual  preacher  has  a  du-ty 
to  evangelize  persons,  so  the  Church  has  a  duty  to  improve  the 
schools,  to  reform  the  moving-picture  shows  and  public  recreation 
parks,  to  demand  clean  politics,  and  to  abolish  the  saloon,  and  to  in- 
fluence unto  a  Christian  end  all  the  institutions  of  the  community. 

2.  The  public  schools,  especially  in  the  country,  should  be  wholly 
reconstructed.  Throughout  the  country  districts  the  common  schools 
are  quite  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  people.  As  compared  to  the 
schools  in  the  towns,  the  country  schools  are  a  failure.  The  churches 
of  Huntingdon  Presbytery  should  undertake  deliberately  to  demand, 
and,  through  a  consistent,  determined  agitation,  to  secure,  where 
practicable,  centralized  rural  schools  with  graded  instruction,  ade- 
quate buildings,  with  a  system  of  transportation  for  the  pupils,  and 
with  industrial,  manual  and  agricultural  training  for  the  children. 
This  is  not  asking  more  than  is  provided  for  the  children  in  the 
towns,  and  until  such  schools  are  provided  in  the  country,  it  will  be 
impossible  to  retain  the  best  people  in  the  country  community. 

3.  The  churches  in  Huntingdon  Presbytery  should  undertake  to 
promote  public  recreation.  There  is  need  of  a  Play-Ground  Move- 
ment in  this  territory,  especially  in  the  smaller  places  and  in  the  rural 
communities.  The  underlying  principle  of  the  Play-Ground  Move- 
ment is  the  fact  that  recreation  is  ethical,  and  the  play-ground  is  a 
field  of  moral  training  for  the  children  and  for  working  people.  The 
churches  should  insist  that  public  play-grounds  be  provided,  and  that 
those  which  are  used  should  be  governed  by  sensible  and  decent  prin- 
ciples appropriate  to  the  play  spirit  itself,  and  harmonious  with  the 
best  interest  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  and,  if  necessary,  the 
churches  should  themselves  promote  recreation  on  high  standards 
through  the  organizations  of  their  young  people. 

48 


The  importance  of  the  country  school  and  the  rural  play-ground  in 
close  association  with  the  Church  is  in  the  fact  that  the  foreign 
population  in  Pennsylvania  is  so  largely  employed  in  such  manner 
as  to  reside  in  the  country.  It  is  more  difficult  for  a  rural  community 
to  assimilate  foreigners  where  the  institutions  of  the  community  are 
weak.  The  tendency  is  for  stiff  and  permanent  social  divisions  to 
persist,  and  in  order  to  assimilate  the  foreign  population  and  to 
Americanize  them,  strong  and  aggressive  institutions,  such  as  a  mod- 
ern educational  system  and  a  public  play-ground  well  regulated,  are 
necessary.  This  policy  should  be  primarily  a  rural  one,  because  both 
the  farming  population  and  the  laboring  population,  the  one  native 
born  and  the  other  foreign  born,  should  be  retained  in  the  country, 
and  trained  in  the  American  way  of  life. 

4.  The  churches  in  Huntingdon  Presbytery  should  become  the 
advocates  in  every  public  way  of  the  social  and  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  following  people: 

Of  the  farmer,  teaching  him  to  understand  his  own  life,  to 
dignify  agriculture  with  scientific  knowledge  and  intelligent  interest, 
and  to  realize  that  the  future  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  country 
is  to  be  shared  most  largely  by  the  modern  intelligent  farmer. 

Of  the  foreigner.  The  churches  should  promote  the  well-being 
of  the  foreigner  by  advocating  improved  housing  in  the  foreign  set- 
tlements, by  publishing  persistently  the  evil  conditions  which  follow 
from  the  degraded  life  foreigners  are  obliged  to  live.  The  churches 
should  advocate  the  foreigner's  right  and  duty  to  become  a  citizen, 
to  own  property,  and  to  obey  the  laws,  and  as  a  means  of  conciliating 
and  winning  the  foreigner  the  churches  should  understand  the  na- 
tional customs  brought  by  these  people  from  foreign  lands. 

It  would  be  a  wise  thing  for  communities  in  which  there  are  large 
settlements  of  certain  nationalities  to  celebrate  the  holidays  of  these 
nationalities,  especially  the  great  national  holiday,  which  is  dear  to 
the  heart  of  that  settlement  of  foreigners.  This  celebration  should  be 
dignified  and  artistic,  the  national  characteristics  and  customs  of  the 
people  who  are  being  honored  should  be  made  much  of,  the  folk- 
dances  should  be  revived,  and  the  children  of  the  foreign  population 
taught  to  honor  the  customs,  the  sentiments,  and  the  religious  ex- 
perience of  iheir  forefathers.  Only  by  honoring  the  foreigner  and 
understanding  him  can  the  churches  of  Huntingdon  Presbytery  win 
the  foreigner  to  American  citizenship  and  to  a  sympathy  w^ith  and 
honor  for  American  Christianity. 

A  "Church  for  the  People''  campaign  should  be  carried  on  through- 

49 


out  the  Presbytery,  with  a  meeting  in  every  church,  ending  at  the 
conclusion  of  about  three  months  with  a  Conservation  Congress.  The 
objective  in  this  campaign  should  be  the  education  of  all  the  churches 
in  a  common  religious  propaganda,  especially  the  enlistment  of  lay- 
men in  intelligent  support  of  a  constructive  program. 


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